LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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Shelf jLltJT 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Pocket Manual 



OF 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 



W> 



-BY — 



Rev A. Hastings Ross. 




CHICAGO: 

E. J. Alden, 243 State St. 

1883. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTOtfl 



$i 



^ 



Copyright, 1883, 
BY A. HASTINGS ROSS c 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



PREFACE. 



We present this Pocket Manual, as an honest 
attempt to adjust the Congregational Polity to its 
principles and enlargement. Two things gave it an 
abnormal development — the union of church and state 
in New England, and a false theory of the ministry. 
Repeated attempts have been made to correct the 
evils resulting from these early errors, but the true 
remedy has not yet been fully adopted. These at- 
tempts could not have arisen under a simple, con- 
sistent, and complete development of our principles ; 
for such a development would have given a stable, 
because adequate, polity. 

The theory that ordained men are ministers only 
while installed pastors, and that removal: from office 
deposes them from the ministry, and makes them 
laymen again, was incorporated into our earliest 
usages and Platform. It placed a minister's standing 
in the local church of which he was pastor, so that 
he was accountable to that church both as a member 
and as a minister. A vote to remove him from the 
pastorate took away his standing as a minister. He 
had no other, and by the theory could have no other. 
This theory was so inadequate that it 'was rejected in 
about thirty years for the true one, but its usages con- 
tinued, and some of them still continue. The change 
in the theory involved a change in ministerial stand- 
ing, since that standing could no longer be held logi- 
cally in local churches. There arose, consequently, 
an unsettled state respecting ministerial standing. 

Our peace was disturbed also by another change, 
the separation of church and state in New England,, 



IV. 



The Cambridge Platform, 1648, rested its discipline 
ultimately on the coercive power of the magistrate, as 
its last chapter shows; and to that power there were 
sad but frequent appeals. This very citadel soon 
crumbled into ruins, but no other defence was erected 
in its place, except in Connecticut (see my article in 
the JVeiv Englander, 1883, 461-491, on "Some Neglected 
Factors in Congregational Fellowship." ) ; and so con- 
fusion arose. We tried to make occasional councils 
conserve purity where our fathers relied on "the 
coercive power of the magistrate." The attempt was 
not a complete success. 

We believe that the true remedy for these errors 
and their evils, is accountable ministerial standing in 
District Associations, with right of appeal in case of 
injustice to a council of churches (§g 80, 85, 50, 51). 

The slight change proposed may best be seen in the 
following 

PARALLELISM 

Between the early and the new method: 

EARLY METHOD. NEW METHOD. 

1. Ministers held their ac- 1. Ministers hold their ac- 
countable standing, as minis- countable standing, as minis- 
ters, in the churches of which ters, in the Associations of 
they were pastors. which they are members. 

2. This standing was taken 2. This standing is taken 
away from ministers by local away from ministers by Dis- 
churches, each dealing with trict Associations, each deal- 
its own pastor. ing with its own members. 

8. In case of grievance re- 3. In case of grievance re- 
course was had to a mutual course is had to a mutual 
council, each party choosing council, each party choosing 
half its members. half its members. 

4. If a mutual council was 4. If a mutual council is de- 
declined, an ex parte council clined, an ex parte council is 
was open to the aggrieved open to the aggrieved party, 
party. 

5. In case of heresy or dis- 5. Perfect liberty is assured 
orderly conduct, the magis- through the separation of 
trate put forth his coercive church and state, the coercion 
power to suppress it (Cam' of belief and practice being 
bridge Platform, xvii. 7, 8, 9). impossible. 



The early method ended in coercion ; indeed it was 
decided that the civil magistrate need not wait for 
church action before suppressing, by civil pains and 
penalties, "heresy," " pernicious opinions," and what- 
ever disturbed "the peaceable administration and 
exercise of the worship and holy things of God." 

The new method ends in liberty, stopping with self- 
protection. It is the presentation of this new and 
better way, as we believe, in a simple, consistent, com- 
plete, and Congregational system, that constitutes the 
peculiar claim of this Manual to attention ; though 
we trust it will be found useful also in other respects. 

The origin of this Manual, and its issuance at the 
present time, are explained by the following state- 
ment and action, namely : — 

The General Association of the Congregational 
Churches and Ministers of Michigan, in 1881, ap- 
pointed a committee to prepare a Michigan Manual. 
This committee reportecl, in 1883. The Manual was 
ordered printed and circulated among the churches 
for examination and criticism; but, on reconsidera- 
tion, the following vote was passed: 

" We have listened with deep interest to the outline of 
a Manual of Congregationalism as reported by the com- 
mittee ; and we recommend the author, Rev. A. Hast- 
ings Boss, to secure the publication of this Manual at 
his earliest convenience, for the information and aid 
of Congregational churches, not only in our own 
State, but throughoutthe country ;> (Minutes, 1883, 11). 

We have, however, enlarged the original draft, that 
it might the better cover the whole field. 

The General Association of Michigan, at its meet- 
ing in May, 1883, adopted also the following resolu- 
tion, covering the chief point or claim of this Pocket 
Manual, namely: — 

"Besolved, That the General Association of Michi- 
gan deem it to b? both orderly and expedient for a 
church or minister, that may be excluded or ex- 
pelled from membership in any Association or Con- 
ference in connection, on grounds or charges claimed 



VI. 

to be insufficient or false, to call the attention of the 
body doing the alleged wrong to the point of griev- 
ance, and to invite it to join in calling a mutual 
council to review the case and advise in the matter ; 
and, on its refusal or neglect to do so, to call an ex 
parte council for the same purposes " (Minutes, 9). 

The general plan of the present work is similar to 
that of the " Ohio Manual ; " and we are greatly 
indebted to the General Association of Ohio for its 
kindness in allowing through its Kegister so large a 
use of that work. We have taken whole sections and 
even pages from i<, which we here acknowledge with- 
out further indication, but which we could never have 
ventured to do, had not the " Ohio Manual " been the 
work of our hands. As the many editions of that 
Manual have nearly ceased, they for whom it was 
prepared will be glad to give its most valuable parts 
a wider circulation in this its enlarged form. 

We commit this little Manual to the kind consid- 
eration of the churches we love so well, invoking upon 
it the blessing of the Great Head of the Church, to 
whom be glory for ever. Amen. 

A. HASTINGS EOSS. 
Port Huron, Mich., 

July 10th, 1883. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTEE I. 
The Congregation alists: 

2 1. Name 3 

2. Origin 4 

3. Progress and Numbers 6 

CHAPTEK II. 

Doctrinal Position of the Congregational 
Churches: 

J 4. Importance of Doctrine 11 

5. Their Kule, the Bible 11 

6. Their General Confessions 12 

7. Their Church Creeds 12 

8. Their Doctrinal Guards to the Ministry. 13 

9. Their Guards to Church Membership — 13 

10. Their Doctrinal Basis of Union 14 

11. Their Liberty in Non-Essentials 15 

12. Their Statement of Evangelical Doctrines 15 

13. Their Treatment of Weak Believers 17 

CHAPTEK III. 

Ecclesiastical Position of the Congrega- 
tional Churches: 
? 14. Four Theories of the Christian Church— 21 
15. Constitutive Principles of these Theories. 21 



vnr. 

I. — The Church Invisible Becomes Visible in Churches, 

Pagb. 

\ 16. The Invisible Church 22 

17. Manifestation of the Invisible Church. — 22 

18. A Church 23 

19. All Theories Diverge in the Attempted 

Union of Local Churches 23 

II. — How Churches are Formed. 

§20. The Material _ 24 

21. Beginning to Organize 24 

22. Completing the Organization 25 

23. Seeking Church Fellowship 26 

24. Legal Relations of Churches 27 

25. Care in Organization 28 

ITT. — The Constitutive Principle of the Primitive, 
and the Congregational Churches. 

I 26. Meaning of the Term 29 

27. The Constitutive Principle 30 

28. Ecclesiastical Authority, where Deposited 30 

29. Ecclesiastical Societies not Scriptural — 31 

30. Proof of the Constitutive Principle 31 

31. a. Election of Officers 31 

32. b. The Law of Discipline 32 

33. c. General Management 33 

34. d. Their Autonomy, or Independence, 

Conceded 33 

IV. — The Unifying Principle of the Primitive, and 
the Congregational Churches. 
§ 35. The Invisible Spiritual Church Indivisi- 
ble . 36 

36. The Unifying Principle 36 

37. Development of the Unifying Principle- 37 

L — Congregational Councils. 

% 38. A Congregational Council what - 37 

39. Letters Missive . L 37 

40. Parties Calling Councils 38 



IX. 

Page. 
% 41. Membership in a Council 38 

42. Parties Calling a Council cannot be Mem- 

bers of it 39 

43. Parties may Decline to sit in Council 40 

44. Quorum and Adjournment 40 

45. Objects of Councils 42 

46. Scope of Councils 42 

47. Kinds of Councils 43 

£ 48. A Uni parte Council 45 

49. A Duo parte Council 45 

50. A Mutual Council 46 

51. An Ex pa rte Council 48 

| 52. Councils should be Fairly Chosen 49 

53. Lawyers in Councils 50 

54. Eesult of Council 51 

55. Procedure in Councils 52 

56. Reports of Delegates 52 

ii, — Church Associations. 

§57. An Association of Churches 53 

58. Kinds of Associations 53 

a. District 53 

6. State 53 

c. National 54 

d. Ecumenical 54 

§59. Names of Associations 54 

60. Membership in Associations 55 

61. Objects of Associations 56 

62. Authority of Associations what 56 

63. Responsibility of Associations 56 

64. Associations not Preslyterial 57 

65. Standing in Associations 00 

a. Ministerial 60 

b. Church 60 

66. Co-ordinate Bodies 61 

67. Relation of Delegates to Associations 61 

68. Reports of Delegates 62 

iii. — Ministerial Associatio ns. 

i 69. Origin 63 

70. Nature 63 



X. 

y Page. 
§ 71. Use 63 

72. Continuance 64 

V. — :27ie Christian Ministry. 

§ 73. The Ministry a Function ana not an Offi- 
cial Eelation 64 

74. The Ministry not a Priesthood 66 

75. The Ministry one Order > 66 

76. Ministers when Church Officers 68 

77. Ordination of Ministers - 68 

78. Installation of Pastors 71 

79. Eecognition of Pastors 72 

80. Ministerial Standing 73 

J 81. Once held in Local Churches 74 

82. This Standing fell with the Pas- 

toral Theory of the Ministry— 75 

83. Sometimes held in Ministerial 

Associations 75 

84. Never held in Councils 76 

85. Properly held in Associations of 

Churches 77 

| 86. Ministerial Discipline 78 

$ 87. By an Association 79 

88. By a Council 79 

§ 89. Ministerial and Church Credentials 82 

90. Contents of Ministerial Credentials 83 

VI. — Church Officers. 

i. — The Pastorate. 

§91. The Pastor 84 

92. Induction into Office 85 

93. Duties 87 

ii. — The Diaconate. 

§ 94. The Diaconate a Lay Office 87 

95. Deaconesses 88 

96. Duties of Deacons — 88 

97. Election of Deacons : 88 

98. Installation of Deacons 88 



XI. 

iii. — Other Church Officers. Page. 

$ 99. A Church may choose other officers, as — 

a. Clerk 89 

b. Treasurer 90 

c. Church Board 90 

d. Committees 91 

e. Superintendent of Sunday School 
and Teachers 91 

VII. — The Christian Sacraments. 

§ 100. Baptism 91 

101. The Lord's Supper - 92 

102. By whom Administered 92 

VIII. — Church Discipline. 

I 103. Offenses Disciplinable 93 

104. The Eule of Discipline 93 

\ 105. Private Offenses 94 

106. Public Scandals 95 

§ 107. Procedure in Trial - 95 

108. Trial by Committee or Jury 95 

109. Eules of Evidence 96 

110. Irregularities in Procedure 97 

111. Confession 97 

112. Censures — Lifting censure . 98 

113. Censure of Ministers 98 

114. Witnesses 100 

115. Legal Protection of Parties in Discipline 100 

116. Membership a Covenant , 101 

\ 117. Dropping Members 102 

118. Certificate of Membership, 103 

119. Letters of Dismission 103 

120. Letters from Churches 103 

121. Letters to Churches not Receiv- 
ing them 104 

122. When Letters cannot be given. 104 

123. Force of Church Letters 105 

§ 124. Sunday Subscriptions 105 

125. Voting Members 106 



XII. 

IX. — Church Worship, 

r Page. 

\ 126. Each Church regulates its own Worship- 107 

X. — Denominational Differences. 

§ 127. Fundamental Differences 108 

128. Incidental Differences 109 

I 129. The Baptists 110 

130. The Presbyterians 110 

131. The Episcopal Methodists 111 

132. The Episcopalians 112 

133. The Greek and the Roman 

Catholic Churches 113 

CHAPTER IV. 

Activities of the Primitive, and the Con- 
gregational Churches: 

\ 134. The Great Commission 117 

135. Activity of the Primitive Churches 118 

136. Activity of the Congregational Churches. 119 

137. Co-operative National Societies 120 

138. Theological Seminaries 121 

CHAPTER V. 

Congregational Forms, and Rules : 
I. — Admission of Members. 

§ 139. Articles of Faith 125 

140. Address 128 

141. Creed 129 

142. Covenant 131 

II.— g 143. Standing Rules 135 

III. — Church Letters. 

I 144. Letter of Dismission : — -140 

145. Letter of Introduction 140 

146. Complaint against an Offender 141 



XIII. 

TV .—Letters Missive. _ 

Page. 

§ 147. To Organize or Eecognize a Church 142 

148. To Ordain or Recognize a Minister 142 

149. To Dismiss a Pastor 143 

150. To Discipline a Minister 144 

V. — 2 151. Order of Procedure in Councils 145 

VI. — Parliamentary Pules. 

5 152. Rules of Order a Common Law 147 

153. To Bring Business before the Body 148 

154. To Dispose of the Business before the 

Body 149 

Motions and Questions : 

' \ 155. Amendable 151 

156. Unamendable 151 

157. Undebatable 152 

158. Subsidiary 153 

159. Incidental 155 

160. Privileged 155 

161. Requiring more than a majority vote.— 155 



CHAPTER VI. 

National Congkegational Bodies. 

\ 162. National Synods 159 

163. The National Council 159 

I 164. Constitution 160 

165. By-Laws 164 

166. Rules of Order 168 

SUPPLEMENTAL. 

2 L67. How to Form Church Associations 173 

168. Service for Admistering Infant Baptism, 175 



POCKET MANUAL 



OF 



CONGREGATIONALISM, 



L 

THE CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



" Being built upon the foundation of the 
Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself 
being the chief cornerstone.'' — Paul. 



. 



THE CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

I. Name. The Greek word, ekklesia, gen- 
erally translated in the New Testament 
" church," means primarily a popular or 
other assembly legally summoned; in the 
heathen sense, the lawful assembly in a free 
Greek city of all those possessed of the 
right of citizenship, for the transaction of 
public affairs; in the Jewish sense, a con- 
gregation, assembly of people on solemn 
occasions or for worship; in the Christian 
sense, a congregation of the followers of 
Christ Jesus, organized for worship and 
Christian labor. Now the words congre- 
gational, congregationalist, and Congrega- 
tionalism, are derived from the word con- 
gregation; and they, like the word trans- 
lated "church," have primary reference to 
an assembly. When, therefore, they are 
applied to a form of church government, 
they indicate that the local congregation of 
believers occupies the determinative place in 

3 



the system, such as the Pope occupies in 
the Papacy, the Bishop (Episcopos) in the 
Episcopacy, the Presbyter in Presbyterian- 
ism. Strictly, therefore, the congregation- 
alists are all those who confine the ri^ht 
and exercise of ecclesiastical authority un- 
der Christ, to each local congregation of 
believers, called the church of that place. 
In-history, however, the word has a techni- 
cal and limited signification; and the Con- 
gregationalists, in England also called 
Independents, are a denomination of Chris- 
tians distinguished from other denomina- 
tions, also congregationally governed, by 
marks of doctrine, or of rite, or of both. 
Thus, the Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, 
and others, are congregationally governed, 
but they are known by other names and 
are distinguished from the Congregation- 
alists in all histories, records, associations, 
fellowships, statistics and activities. As a 
denomination, the Congregationalists are 
as distinct as are the Presbyterians or any 
other denomination. 

2. Origin. The apostolic and primitive 
churches were confessedly congregational 
in their form of government (§ 34), but 



their independence and rights slowly disap- 
peared before the encroachments of pre- 
latical and hierarchical ideas and practices, 
until they were lost in the Papacy. The 
Great Reformation was a partial return 
to the liberty of the primitive churches. 
Luther apprehended the congregational 
idea of the church as early as 1523, but the 
Synod of Homburg, in 1526, made the 
earliest formal statement of it. The model 
prepared was too revolutionary for the 
princes of Germany to indorse, so it was 
surrendered for another. Modern Congre- 
gationalism first appeared in England under 
Robert Browne, in or about 1580. It took a 
more permanent form in the Pilgrim Church 
organized at Scrooby, England, 1606, which 
removed to Holland, in 1607 and 1608, and 
thence to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. 
It is the claim of this system of church 
government, and one now generally con- 
ceded (§ 34), that it is a development of the 
principles revealed in the New Testament, 
and embodied in the polity of the primitive 
churches. Hence we may truly say that 
the Congregationalists have their origin in 
the planting of churches by the Apostles, 



6 

but their revival in the early part of the 
seventeenth century in England. 

3. Progress and Numbers. Arising 
under centralized and opposing systems, 
the Congregational theory (§§ 26, 27) of 
the Christian Church has made rapid pro- 
gress, and its prevalence is of unspeakable 
interest, since it bears in its bosom civil as 
well as religious liberty. It has a strong 
foothold in England and the United States, 
chiefly in the Baptist and in the Congre- 
gational churches.* The relation of polity 

*The Congregational churches in the 
world (in 1 880-1 883) are located as follows: 
Africa, 59; Australia, 180; Austria, 1; Can- 
ada, 123; Ceylon, 13; Channel Islands, 12; 
China, 36; England, 2,298; France, 3; Ger- 
many, 2; Ireland, 31; India, 77; Japan, 16; 
Madagascar, 1,142; Micronesia, 40; Mexico, 
1; Newfoundland, 4; New Zealand, 22; 
North American Indians, 9; Russia, 1; Scot-, 
land, 108; Sandwich Islands, 57; Spain, 3; 
Travancore, 6; Turkey, 94; United States, 
3,936; Wales, 876; West Indies, 38; Poly- 
nesia, 292 ministers. Total, 9,188 churches, 
besides those in Polynesia not given. — 
[Canadian Cong. Year Book, 1882-3; United 
States Cong. Year Book, 1883.) Baptist 
churches in the world: North America, 



to civil liberty favors the future growth of 
Congregationalism. 

27,213; South America, 8; Europe, 3,034, 
Asia, 596; Africa, 60; Australia, 143; total 
churches (1882), 31,054. To these must be 
added in the United States: Free-Will 
Baptists, 1,485; Anti-Mission Baptists, 900; 
Disciples of Christ, 4,768; Seventh-Day 
Baptists, 87; Six-Principle Baptists, 20; 
total, 7,260 churches. Grand total, 38,314. 
{Minutes Mich, BapU Convention, 1882.) 



II. 

DOCTRINAL POSITION OF THE CON- 
GREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 



"If ye abide in my word, then are ye 
truly my disciples; and ye shall know the 
truth, and the truth shall make you free,"— 
Jesus Christ. 



DOCTRINAL POSITION OF THE 
CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCHES, 

4. Importance of Doctrine. Doctrine 
is more than polity; the life than raiment. 
Although polity reacts on doctrine and may 
subvert it, as in the case of the Papacy, still 
the question "What is the doctrinal posi- 
tion of the Congregationalists ? " is far more 
vital than this other, " What is the form of 
their church government?" Soundness in 
the faith is of the first importance. 

5. Their Rule the Bible. The Con- 
gregational Churches " agree in belief that 
the Holy Scriptures are the sufficient and 
only infallible rule of religious faith and 
practice." This clear and full declaration 
our churches put into the constitution of 
their triennial National Council; for it only 
reaffirms their previous doctrinal position 
taken in confessions, creeds and standard 
writers. But the Holy Scriptures are vari- 
ously understood, therefore the Congrega- 

11 



12 



tional Churches have set forth their inter- 
pretation of them. 

6. Their General Confessions. After 
the custom of other communions, the Con- 
gregationalists have, at different times, 
either adopted or framed elaborate Confess 
sions of Faith; first the Westminster Con- 
fession (Presbyterian), in 1648; the Savoy- 
Declaration, in 1658; the Boston Confession, 
in 1680; and the Burial Hill Declaration, in 
1865. The three former are elaborate and 
almost identical; the latter is brief. Our 
•churches regard these and such like con- 
fessions as declaratory only; denying to 
Assembly, Synod, Council, Conference, or 
any other body, civil or ecclesiastical, the 
authority to impose any confession upon 
the churches of Christ. Hence these con- 
fessions are and must remain declaratory 
only. No member, deacon, pastor, or church 
is required to subscribe to them, though 
they are rightly made tests of church (§§ 
10, 23) and associational (§§ 10, 63) fellow- 
ship. 

7. Their Church Creeds. Each Con- 
gregational Church, at its organization, 
adopts such articles of faith for its creed as 



13 

it deems most scriptural, embracing little 
more than the fundamental doctrines. All 
are evangelical. Assent to its creed is re- 
quired of every candidate for membership. 

8. Their Doctrinal Guards to the 
Ministry. The Congregational churches 
guard the ministry from doctrinal error by 
examination of all candidates for the sacred 
calling, and of all ordained ministers on 
recognizing or installing them in a new 
pastorate. This examination respects their 
mental, moral, and spiritual qualifications^ 
their doctrinal belief, and their ecclesiasti- 
cal and church standing (§ 79). 

9. Their Guards to Church Member- 
ship. The Congregationalists hold that 
only converted persons should be in full- 
membership in Christ's visible churches;; 
that all such persons are entitled to the 
communion of saints; that no church or 
churches can rightly exclude from mem- 
bership, by doctrinal or other tests, any one 
whom the Lord accepts as his; and that, 
therefore, the terms of admission should be 
made to correspond, as nearly as possible, 
with the scriptural conditions of admittance 
into the kingdom of heaven (§§ 13, 20). 



14 



Baptized children are not in full church 
membership; but they "must credibly show 
and profess their own repentance toward 
God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ, before they come to the Lord's 
table, or are recognized as members in full 
communion " (Boston Platform Pt. II., 
vii, 4). 

10. Their Doctrinal Basis of Union. 
The Congregational churches make the 
common evangelical doctrines the basis of 
their Christian fellowship and union. This 
has ever been substantially their position. 
The Congregational churches in the United 
States, in organizing a triennial National 
Council at Oberlin, in 1871, adopted the 
following statement as the doctrinal basis 
of union, namely: "They agree in belief 
that the Holy Scriptures are the sufficient 
and only infallible rule of religious faith 
and practice; their interpretation thereof 
being in substantial accordance with the 
great doctrines of the Christian faith, com- 
monly called evangelical, held in our 
churches from the early times, and suf- 
ficiently set forth by former General Coun- 
cils " (§ 164). Any church holding these 



15 



doctrines we admit to our fellowship and 
union. 

The General Associations of the several 
States, with few exceptions, and generally 
the District Associations within these States, 
have doctrinal bases, as tests, which contain 
little more than the consensus of belief in 
all Christendom (§ 12). The bodies which 
have no express doctrinal basis have an 
implied one covered by such terms as 
"Evangelical," etc. Conformity in belief 
to these creeds is required of churches and 
ministers joining said bodies. 

11. Their Liberty in Non-Essentials. 
It is patent to every one that among the 
evangelical denominations there is a wide 
diversity, both in doctrinal belief and in 
rites, ceremonies, rituals, governments, and 
customs. Now, the Congregationalists, 
while holding firmly the essential truths of 
the Gospel, say of these other matters: 
" Let each man be fully assured in his own 
mind." 

12. Their Statement of Evangelical 
Doctrines. The doctrines held to be essen- 
tial are happily expressed in the Burial Hill 
Declaration, adopted by the Congregational 



16 



churches of the United States,, in National 
Council, at Boston, in 1865, and are as fol- 
lows: 

"Thus recognizing the unity of tne 
church of Christ in all the world, and 
knowing that we are but one branch of 
Christ's people, while adhering to our pe- 
culiar faith and order, we extend to all 
believers the hand of Christian fellowship,, 
upon the basis of those great fundamental 
truths in which all Christians should agree. 
With them we confess our faith in God, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the 
only living and true God; in Jesus Christ, 
the incarnate Word, who is exalted to be 
our Redeemer and King; and in the Holy 
Comforter, who is present in the church to- 
regenerate and sanctify the soul. 

"With the whole church we confess the 
common sinfulness and ruin of our race, 
and acknowledge that it is only through 
the work accomplished by the life and ex- 
piatory death of Christ, that believers in 
him are justified before God, receive the 
remission of sins, and, through the presence 
and grace of the Holy Comforter, are de- 
livered from the power of sin and perfected 
in holiness. 



17 



"We believe, also, in the organized and 
visible church; in the ministry of the Word; 
in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper; in the resurrection of the body; 
and in the final judgment, the issues of 
which are eternal life and everlasting pun- 
ishment. 

"We receive these truths on the testi- 
mony of God, given through prophets 
and apostles, and in the life, the miracles, 
the death, the resurrection of his Son, our 
Divine Redeemer — a testimony preserved 
for the church in the Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments, which were composed 
by holy men as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost." 

13. Their Treatment of Weak Be- 
lievers. The same National Council de- 
clare, however, that " those who desire to 
profess their faith in Christ and to follow 
him, may be admitted into the church, 
though weak in the faith, because weak 
Christians, if sincere, have the substance of 
that penitent faith and holiness which is 
required in church members, and such have 
most need of the ordinances for their con- 
firmation and growth in grace. Such charity 



18 



and tenderness are to be used, that the 
weakest Christian, if sincere, may not be 
excluded or. discouraged " (Boston Plat- 
form, Pt. II., vii, 2). 



Ill 

ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION OF THE 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 



"With freedom did Christ set us free: 
stand fast therefore, and be not entangled 
again in a yoke of bondage." — Paul 



ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION OF 

THE CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCHES. 

14. Four Theories of the Christian 
Church. The doctrine of the Christian 
Church, treats of the nature and develop- 
ment of the church. It is the only grand 
doctrine respecting which there is a radical 
difference of view among the evangelical 
denominations. On this all Christians are 
divided into four exclusive hosts: the Papal, 
the Episcopal, the Presbyterial, and the 
Congregational. Other theories are only 
compounds of these. We give the theory 
or doctrine maintained by the Congrega- 
tional churches. 

15. Constitutive Principles of these 
Theories. Each one of these four theo- 
ries is dominated by a single principle 
which constitutes the polity what it is, and 
which is therefore called its constitutive 
principle. The principle about which the 

Paoacyis built is Infallible Primacy (§ 133); 
21 



22 



that about which the Episcopacy is built is 
Apostolic Succession (§ 132); while that of 
Presbyterianism is Authoritative Represen- 
tation (§ 130); and that of Congregational- 
ism is the Autonomy or Independence of 
each local church (§§ 26, 27, 34). 



I. — The Church Invisible Becomes 
Visible in Churches. 

16. The Invisible Church. The Con- 
gregational churches believe in the one 
invisible Catholic Church founded on the 
Rock Christ Jesus, composed of all regen- 
erate souls on earth and in heaven; the 
general assembly and church of the first 
born (Heb. xii, 23); the church universal, 
militant, and triumphant. 

7. Manifestation of the Invisible 
Church. This church universal continu- 
ally manifests itself on earth in local con- 
gregations of believers, called churches in 
the New Testament; as " the churches of the 
Gentiles," "the churches of Christ," " the 
churches of God," " the churches of Galatia," 
"the churches of Judea," etc.; beside these 



23 



general expressions, about thirty local 
churches are mentioned by name. Each 
and every local assembly of believers, 
though meeting in a private house, is called 
a church by the inspired writers. The word 
" church " is never used in the New Testa- 
ment to designate a visible body of believers 
larger than a single congregation. 

1 8. A Church. "Those believers who 
dwell together in one place become a church 
by their recognition of each other, and 
their mutual agreement to observe Christ's 
ordinances in one society. Their covenant 
with Christ to be his disciples and obedient 
subjeets becomes, by that mutual recogni- 
tion and agreement, their covenant with 
each other to be fellow-disciples and helpers 
of each other's faith in a distinct church " 
(Boston Plat., Pt. II., i. 4). 

19. All Theories diverge in the At- 
tempted Union of Local Churches. 
There is essential harmony of opinion res- 
pecting the invisible church; but respecting 
the manifestations of that church in sepa- 
rate congregations, radically divergent 
views are held and embodied in contend- 
ing systems of church government. The 



24 



point of divergence in view and practice is 
not so much the nature of the church uni- 
versal as the nature and relations of the 
particular churches. 

Let us now develop the theory or doc- 
trine of the Cristian Church held by the 
Congregationalists and embodied in the 
system known as Congregationalism. 

II. — How Churches are Formed. 

20. The Material. If there be two or 
three believers (Matt, xviii, 20) in a com- 
munity or neighborhood where there is no 
church at all, or no church which they can 
conscientiously join or with which they can 
worship, or where there is need of forming 
a new church to meet religious wants, such 
believers constitute the material out of 
which a church may be organized. They 
may be already members of a church or of 
churches or only converts not yet admitted 
to church privileges. 

21. Beginning to Organize a Church. 
If such believers feel it to be their duty to 
organize themselves into a church, they can 
do so in this way: — 



25 



a. They should first meet together for 
prayer and consultation and agreement that 
their action may be considerate and har- 
monious. 

b. Those holding membership in other 
churches should obtain letters of dismission 
and recommendation for the purpose of 
constituting a new church (§§ 119, 120). 

c. Those not members, if any, should give 
testimony of their repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
testify to their desire to walk in church 
fellowship and privileges (§ 13). 

d. They should then all enter into cove- 
nant, written or verbal, to live and worship 
and labor together in church relations (§ 142). 
They thereby become a church of Christ, if 
built upon Him, according to His word 

(§ 18). ' 

22. Completing the Organization. 

Churches are permanent bodies; and they, 
therefore, need articles of faith (§ 139) and 
standing rules (§ 143), to guide them. They 
need also some form of admission to mem- 
bership (§§ 140-142). Hence they should 
adopt these, in order to complete their or- 
ganization, and as the condition of church 



26 

fellowship (§ 23), and the test of pulpit and 
Sunday school teaching (§ 139). A church 
is not fully organized until it can show 
what it believes, and how its affairs are to 
be managed. As the articles of faith and 
the standing rules constitute both the con- 
dition of fellowship and the ground of 
peace and prosperity, great care should be 
had in framing and adopting them. When 
adopted, a local church is not to stand alone 
in its completeness. 

23. Seeking* Church Fellowship. A 
church 'so organized should not stand 
alone. There are others like it, with which 
it is in spiritual union. Christ, its Head, 
prayed that the spiritual union of His 
churches might be manifested (John xvii, 
20-23). A church must, therefore, seek 
church fellowship (§ 35). This it may do 
in two ways (§ 37): — 

a. It may call a council of churches (§§ 
3&, 40) to examine the grounds or reasons 
of its formation, its articles of faith, and 
standing rules (§§ 7, 14, 143), and to ap- 
prove of the same, if sound and correct; 
and to give it the right hand of recognition 
and fellowship. This is the old way; of 



27 

great value, if there be doubt about the 
expediency of organizing a church, but 
needing to be supplemented by the later 
and more permanent way, namely: — 

b. The church should join the association 
of churches (§ 57) nearest by. This it may 
do by presenting a copy of its articles of 
faith and standing rules to the association, 
and asking admission into membership. If 
approved by the association, it is admitted 
by vote under the constitution of the body 
(§ 6c). If the church by changing its arti- 
cles of faith and its rules, or by its disor- 
derly conduct violates the cardinal condi- 
tions on which it was received, it can be 
suspended or expelled from membership in 
the association (§ 62). For fellowship is 
reciprocal (§ 64); its rights and responsi- 
bilities are co-ordinate. Hence those desir- 
ing its privileges must piously observe the 
conditions of its existence. 

24. Legil Relations of Churches. 
Since churches need meeting houses and 
other property, they fall into legal relations 
and conditions which they must observe. 
The incorporation of churches as such with- 
out an ecclesiastical society (§ 29) in con- 



28 



current action with them, is authorized in 
nearly all the States*. This is the primitive 
method, restored after centuries of union 
of church and state; and it is to be pre- 
ferred as simple, adequate, and alone in 
harmony with the principles of pure, free, 
and independent churches. Trustees should 
be chosen by the church itself (§ 143, d), 
into whose control, under the laws of the 
State wherein the church is situated, the 
church property is confided. 

25. Care in Organization. Too great 
care cannot be had in organizing churches, 
lest strife and death be organized into them. 
Every step should be sure and legal, and 
every act should be recorded. To begin 
well is to end well. No haste should be 
allowed to invalidate proceedings, and the 
legal conditions of incorporation should be 

* Having occasion, in 1879, to examine 
the laws respecting religious corporations 
in the United States, we found that of the 
thirty-six States whose laws were examined, 
twenty-eight by general statutes, and four 
more by special acts, authorized the incor- 
poration of churches as churches without 
societies. Only five defined the qualifica- 
tions of voters in religious corporations. 



29 



strictly observed. As these are different 
in different States, no rule can here be 
given*. 

III. — The Constitutive Principle of the 
Primitive, and the Congrega- 
tional Churches. 

26. Meaning of the Term. The con- 
stitutive principle of any thing is that which 
makes it what it is, determines its character- 
istics, distinguishes it from everything else, 
and answers all questions about its nature 
and development. Thus the constitutive 
principle of Congregationalism is that which 
gives the system individuality, distinguishes 
it from other polities, pervades all its insti- 
tutions, and gives the answer to every query 
regarding the peculiar constitution, out- 
ward and inward, of all Congregational 

*Each State Association could wisely 
publish in its Minutes either the law itself 
or a digest of it, as the General Association 
of Michigan printed a digest of the general 
statutes of that State respecting religious 
corporations {Minutes for 1880, pp. 41-65), 
and issued a reprint for the use of church 
clerks and trustees. 



30 

bodies. It is the principle by which all 
development is shaped and limited. 

27. The Constitutive Principle. This 
principle is the autonomy or complete in- 
dependence under Christ of each local con- 
gregation of believers (§ 15). A church is 
subject to its Head, and to His revealed 
law; but in its legitimate sphere as a church 
it is subject to no other head, law, or au- 
thority. It is independent, autonomous; no 
conference, synod, presbytery, council, or 
magistrate having the power to review, 
annul, or coerce its action. Each has the 
right to manage its own affairs. 

23. Ecclesiastical Authority — where 
Deposited. Christ bestowed upon His 
churches the requisite authority to manage 
their own affairs, and deposited this au- 
thority in the members. Thus by majority 
vote each church has power to elect its own 
officers (§31), to carry on its discipline 
(§ 104); indeed, to transact whatever busi- 
ness belongs to an independent body (§§ 
30-34). The authority is not divided be- 
tween the officers and the members; but it 
resides wholly in the members, who can act, 
when necessary, without pastor or deacons. 



31 

The pastor or presiding officer has, there- 
fore, no power of veto over church action. 

29. Ecclesiastical Societies not Scrip- 
tural. There is no scriptural warrant for 
an ecclesiastical society separate from and 
in concurrent action with the church (§ 24). 
The church itself should hold property, and 
manage all its pecuniary affairs. " This is 
the New Testament plan, so far as it hints 
any plan at all " (Dexter). The church can 
do this through aboard of trustees (§ 143, d). 
An ecclesiastical society originated in the 
union of church and state, and, though 
having some advantages, endangers, as our 
history proves, the purity and freedom of 
the churches. 

30. Proof of the Constitutive Princi- 
ple. Here extreme brevity is necessary, 
and we refer to our standard writers for a 
fuller presentation of the argument. 

31. a. Election of Officers. In the se- 
lection of the apostle Matthias, the whole 
church took an equal part with the eleven 
(Acts i, 15-26). The seven alms-distribu- 
tors, whose office developed into that of 
deacon (§ 94), were chosen by the members, 
and set apart to their work by the apostles 



32 

(Acts vi, 1-6). The primitive churches 
elected their own delegates (Acts xv, 2; 2 
Cor. viii, 19). The manner of appointing 
elders, bishops, pastors — names of the same 
officers (§ 75) — is not indicated in the New- 
Testament; though ecclesiastical history 
shows that the people had a voice in their 
selection. Whenever the New Testament 
indicates the manner of an election, the 
membership had the duty of choosing offi- 
cers laid upon them by the apostles. 

32. b. The Law of Discipline. The 
law was given by Christ (Matt, xviii, 15-20), 
and it limits appeal to the local church of 
which the guilty party is a member (§ 105). 
So clear is this limitation that Dean Alford 
is constrained to say: " Nothing can be fur- 
ther from the spirit of our Lord's command 
than proceedings in what are oddly enough 
called ' ecclesiastical courts.' " This was the 
view taken by the apostles; for Paul directs 
the Corinthian Church to discipline a mem- 
ber (1 Cor. v, 13), which it did by majority 
vote (2 Cor. ii, 6). John did not excom- 
municate Diotrephes, who prated against 
him with malicious words, and cast the 
apostle's friends out of the church (3 John 



9« ic). In harmony with His own law, He 
who walked " in the midst of the seven 
golden candlesticks," "the seven churches," 
laid upon each church individually the duty 
of discipline. 

33. c General Management. Each lo- 
cal church is presented in the New Testa- 
ment as acting independently of the control 
or supervision of others. In their intercoursr 
with one another, they acted freely. There 
is not one trace in the Xew Testament of 
the subordination of one church to another, 
or to any number of churches. 

34. d. Their Autonomy or Independ- 
ence Conceded. Of the leading church 
historians we quote the following, no one 
of whom was a Congregationalist: "Every 
church was essentially independent of every 
other " (Waddington. Ecct. Hist,, 43). 
"The apostles founded Christian Churches. 
all based on the same principles, all sharing 
common privileges, * * but all quite 
independent of each other" (Afchblshoj 
Whately, Kingdom of Heaven, Essay II.. gg 
20, 136, 137). "Every town congregation 
of ancient Christianity was a church. The 

constitution of that church was a congrega- 
4 



34 

tional constitution. In St. Paul's Epistles, 
in the writings of Clement Romanus, of 
Ignatius, and of Polycarp, the congregation 
is the highest organ of the Spirit as well as 
the power of the church " (Baron von 
Bunsen, Hippolytus and his Age, in, 220). 
" Neither in the New Testament, nor in any 
ancient document whatever, do we find any 
thing recorded from which it might be in- 
ferred that any of the minor churches were 
at all dependent on, or looked up for direc- 
tion to, those of greater magnitude or con- 
sequence; on the contrary, several things 
occur therein which put it out of all doubt 
that every one of them enjoyed the same 
rights, and was considered as being on a 
footing of the most perfect equality with 
the rest" (Mosheim, Hist. I., 196). "The 
primitive churches were independent bodies, 
competent to appoint their own officers, 
and to administer their own government, 
without reference or subordination to any 
central authority or foreign power. No 
fact connected with the history of the prim- 
itive churches is more fully established or 
more generally conceded " (Coleman, Prim- 
itive Christianity, 95). " Each church was an 



35 

absolutely independent community " (Mil- 
man, Latin Christ. I., 21). The last edition 
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica says that 
the "constitution " of the primitive churches 
was "thoroughly democratic " (vol. V., 699). 
" The theory upon which the public worship 
of the primitive churches proceeded was 
that each community was complete in itself, 
and that in every act of worship every 
element of the community was present. " 
" Every such community seems to have had 
a complete organization, and there is no 
trace of the dependence of any one com- 
munity upon any other." "At the begin- 
ning of the [fourth] century * . * * the 
primitive type still survived; the govern- 
ment of the churches was in the main a 
democracy; at the end of the century the 
primitive type had almost disappeared; the 
clergy were a separate and governing class." 
"In the first ages of its history, while on 
the one hand it was a great and living faith, 
so on the other hand it was a vast and 
organized brotherhood. And being a bro- 
therhood, it was a democracy " (Hatch's 
Bampton Lectures (1880) on Org. Early 
Christ. Chhs., 141, 213, 216). 



36 



What is thus conceded by these and other 
writers, pre-eminent as scholars, and ad- 
herents of other systems, we may consider 
as proved beyond reasonable doubt by the 
facts of history. If, then, the churches 
become apostolic again, they will be demo- 
cratic, independent, congregational. They 
will become again "organized brother- 
hoods," each a democracy complete in itself. 

IV. — The Unifying Principle of the 

Primitive, and the Congre 

gational Churches. 

35. The Invisible Spiritual Church In- 
divisible. "By -one Spirit we are all bap- 
tized into one body." There is but one 
kingdom of heaven. This kingdom is in- 
divisible. Separation from it is apostasy 
from Christ. All true believers are one in 
Christ Jesus. Hence Christ's prayer (John 
xvii, 23) was for visible unity. 

36. The Unifying Principle. This prin- 
ciple is the free and equal fellowship under 
Christ, of all true churches; free y as becomes 
independent bodies; equal, as it is not the 
numbers but the individuality of the several 



37 



churches that constitutes the ground of fel- 
lowship (§ 60); under Christ, so that no one 
can rightly surrender its independence for 
union; true churches, as there can be no 
union with societies not founded on the 
Rock of Ages (§§ 10, 20). This principle 
made the primitive churches one, and it has 
virtue in it to make all Christ's churches 
again one in visible fellowship and co- 
operation (§58, d) . 

37. Development of the Unifying 
Principle. This principle, without im- 
pairing the liberty of the churches, has 
been developed into two systems of unity, 
which we give in detail. 

1. — Congregational Councils. 

38. A Congregational Council what. 

A council is an assembly of such churches 
by pastor and delegate (and of such indi- 
viduals) as may be invited by letters mis- 
sive, to advise on a matter or matters speci- 
fied in the call, or germane thereto. 

39. Letters Missive. The letters call- 
ing the council are designated Letters Mis- 
sive. Thev should be the same in form for 



each church or individual invited on any 
council, should state precisely the object 
respecting which advice or light is sought, 
and should give a list of all churches and 
individuals called to sit in council. If, after 
the issuing of the letters missive, any alter- 
ation or addition, whether of matter or of 
members, be desired, such alteration or ad- 
dition can be effected only by the issuance 
to all that have been invited of a supple- 
mentary letter missive specifying the desired 
changes. 

40. Parties calling Councils. The 
parties calling a council are persons wish- 
ing to organize a church (§§ 20-25); a 
church or churches; an association of 
churches or of ministers (§ 50); an ag- 
grieved member or members of a church 
or association of churches or of ministers 
(§ 51): any party or parties in the fellow- 
ship of the Congregational churches need- 
ing advice. The privilege is as wide as the 
need, of which the churches invited in any 
given case must determine for themselves. 
Past usage cannot bind here, but only be a 
guide. 

41. Membership in a Council. Mem- 



39 

bership in a council has been fixed by the 
letter missive (§ 39). A council cannot add 
to or take from its own membership. It 
cannot invite to honorary membership in 
itself. The party or parties calling it have 
determined its membership, and no one 
can change it. This is fundamental to the 
nature of councils, and no emergency can 
justify a violation of the rule. The party 
or parties calling the council cannot by 
committee or otherwise change its mem- 
bership, except by a supplemental letter 
(§ 39)- To declare a minority (§ 44) that 
may respond to the call to be a council, or 
to be the council invited, is subversive of 
councils. 

42. No party or parties calling a 
Council can be members of it. The 
reason is, that they ask for impartial advice 
from disinterested persons, while they are 
by necessity interested parties. Their in- 
terest varies with the occasion, but no 
party will call a council without some in- 
terest in the result. Hence the rule is 
essential to the impartial nature of the 
result. In case an association of churches 
or of ministers join in calling a council, no 



40 

church, minister or laymen, in such associa- 
tion, or within its bounds, can be permitted 
to sit in said council, since all directly or 
indirectly, are parties to the calling of the 
council, or are interested in the council. 

43. Any party invited to sit in Coun- 
cil may decline. As the party or parties 
calling are free to choose whom they will 
under certain limitations (§§ 42, 52), so the 
party invited, having cause, may decline to 
accept the invitation, and send the reasons 
for its action. If any church or individual 
be invited with whom fellowship cannot be 
had, the invitation should be declined. No 
church or person accepting the invitation 
can challenge or exclude another, since the 
rights of all are equal; nor can the council 
itself exclude a member or challenge his 
vote, since none were compelled to accept 
the call, and the nature of councils forbids 
the challenge. 

44. Quorum and Adjournment, a. A 
quorum in a council of churches is a ma- 
jority of all who have right of membership 
in it (§§ 39, 42). A minority, if composed 
of only one person, certainly if composed 
of two, can adjourn the council to a fixed 



41 

time and place. To this end it can and 
should effect a temporary organization and 
enrolment; but it can legally transact no 
other business, except to keep a record of 
its doings. 

A party or parties cannot by vote or 
otherwise transmute an assembled minority 
into a majority or into a legal council, by 
declaring it to be the council called (§ 41). 
The letter missive cannot in this way be 
subverted, without destroying councils as 
guards of purity and peace. 

In the case of a Uni parte council (§ 48), 
or of a Duo parte council (§ 49), there being 
no controversy or doubt involved, a mino- 
rity sometimes acts as a council by general 
consent. . But even here, as in cases of 
ordination, important interests are involved, 
which require the guard of a legal quorum. 
As a violation of a rule becomes a prece- 
dent to be quoted, security demands, at 
whatever cost in time and money, that there 
be no recognition of minorities assuming to 
act as legal councils. 

fa If a council be called to meet at a fixed 
time and place, or if it, on assembling, 
adjourn to a fixed time and place, it must 



42 

meet at the time and place specified, or else 
its legal existence is destroyed. An ad- 
journment without day also destroys its 
existence. In none of these cases can a 
council legally act afterwards. Neither the 
officers of a council nor the parties calling 
it, have power to postpone an adjourned 
meeting; but the officers may be empow- 
ered by a special vote to postpone or call 
the council at their discretion. A council 
lapsed in one of these ways can be assem- 
bled again by new letters missive, which 
make it a new council. 

45. Objects of Councils. A council 
may be called for various objects :"*to advise 
respecting the organization or dissolution 
of a church; the ordination, recognition or 
installation, dismissal, or discipline of a 
minister; wrongs of aggrieved members of 
churches and associations; church troubles, 
and any other matter of common concern 
to the churches. Only installed pastors 
require a council for dismissal. 

46. Scope of Councils. A council is 
limited in its action by the letters missive 
(§ 39)' It cannot examine into things not 



43 

directly or indirectly covered by the said 
letters. While called for one purpose, it 
cannot do what is not involved in that 
purpose. If called to dismiss a pastor, it 
can make all inquiries necessary to a right 
result respecting that pastor's character and 
conduct, since his dismission must be either 
with or without papers of commendation; 
but great care should be exercised lest the 
scope of councils be enlarged beyond their 
legitimate boundaries* 

47. Kinds of Councils. It is of the 
greatest importance both to the understand- 
ing of the subject and to the peace of the 
churches, that there be a consistent and 
complete classification of councils. And 
when classified they should be appropri- 
ately named. The classification and names 
must rest on the same principle through- 
out, and not partly on one principle and 
partly on another principle, as unfortun- 
ately is now the case. Thus, the Boston 
Platform and Dr. Dexter make three kinds 
of councils, "Advisory," "Mutual," and 
" Ex parte." But as all councils are ad- 
visory, and since the principle of classifica- 
tion is not the same in all the kinds, con- 



44 



fusion in thought, and trouble in practice 
have occurred, and are inevitable. 
, If we seek the principle of classification 
in the result of councils, then all are re- 
duced to Advisory; if, in the objects, then 
the list is too long, and the names of two 
classes, Mutual and Ex parte, must be given 
up, which will not be done; if we call them 
Ordinary and Extraordinary, then the sub- 
divisions lie open to the above difficulties. 
We see no better way than to classify and 
name them on the principle of the parties 
calling them, since two of them have been 
so named of old, and no change of name 
in them can be hoped for. We must find 
co-ordinate names for all the kinds of coun- 
cils. 

To avoid confusion by unity of principle 
and completeness of comprehension, we 
have ventured to present the following 
classification of councils. Since the names 
Mutual and Ex parte are not likely ever to 
be given up, the other names must be made 
co-ordinate with them. This consistent 
arrangement will give four kinds of coun- 
cils, namely: Uni parte, Duo parte, Mutual, 
and Ex parte. These names, if barbarous, 



45 



are nevertheless the best we can find, to 
two of which we have become accustomed, 
while all are co-ordiuate, and include all 
councils. 

48. a. Uni parte Council. This kind of 
council is called by a single party standing 
alone in the transaction. The party calling 
it has no other party in view, but acts 
singly. A company of believers desiring 
to form themselves into a church, a church 
already formed, or any other single party, 
acts in calling a council as one person; and 
the council so called is a Uni parte Council. 
No matter what the object or the result of 
the council, the fact that but one party is 
concerned in calling it, distinguishes it from 
all- other councils, and so appropriately 
names it. 

49. b. A Duo parte Council. This name 
expresses a duality of parties in friendly 
agreement and concurrent action. They are 
not in any controversy or difficulty between 
themselves. Councils of ordination, instal- 
lation or recognition, and often of dismis- 
sion, are examples. A council called by a 
minister and a friendly church, to inquire 
into any matter, as the minister's standing, 



46 

or the action of a third party with which 
the minister may have had a controversy, 
or by which he may have been expelled, is 
not a Mutual, but a Duo parte Council, 
because called by parties in agreement. 
Good order requires that such councils 
should never be called Mutual; for they are 
not Mutual, as denned by our usage and 
standards. 

50. c m A Mutual Council. The term 
Mutual implies also two parties, but par- 
ties in "difficulty or controversy " between 
themselves [Boston Platform, pp, 47, 48, 52, 
53). The parties agree so far as to join in 
calling the council, but disagree as to mat- 
ters respecting which advice is sought. 
" Occasions, calling for the formation of 
Mutual Councils, are always understood to 
imply the existence of two parties, which 
sustain to each other such a relation, as to 
render it expedient to deviate from the 
common practice." Those occasions are 
" cases of controversy " (Upham's Ratio Dis- 
cipline, §§ 159, 158). The parties stand in 
some things over against each other, not in 
mutual admiration and love, but in mutual 
antagonism or controversy. " Cases of con- 



47 

troversy in general between a church and 
its pastor; cases of controversy between a 
church and a private member, or members '- 
(Upham, Ibid.), call for Mutual Councils. 
To which may be added, cases of contro- 
versy or grievance between a minister or a. 
church and an association (§ 40). Such- 
councils are the only ones strictly mutual, 
since those called by two parties for other 
cases (§ 49) are radically distinguished from 
these by the absence of controversy. 

In the selection of the members of a 
Mutual Council, each party chooses one- 
half, with no right or privilege of challenge 
in either party. Still, fair minded churches 
and men should ever be scrupulously se- 
lected (§ 52). If the right of challenge were 
to be allowed, a strong church could use 
the right to crush out any attempt at re- 
dress of grievances made by a weak mem- 
ber unjustly dealt with. 

And the parties need not call the council 
through the mediation of a church, as is 
sometimes held. Magistrates as well as 
churches called councils in the early days. 
As late as 17 16, Increase Mather, in "A Dis- 
quisition concerning Ecclesiastical Coun- 



48 

cils," says: "There have been great dis- 
putes on the question, Who has Power to 
Convoke a Synod? Whether it belongs to 
magistrates or to pastors. I shall not insist 
upon that enquiry, only say, that if we keep 
to Scripture, churches have this power be- 
longing to them" (12 Cong. Quarterly r , 246). 
It cannot, therefore, be affirmed that by 
usage none but churches can issue the call 
for councils. Since a minister in connec- 
tion stands, as a minister, in relation of 
fellowship with the churches, he may, in 
case of injury by an association, appeal to 
the churches for inquiry and advice, asking 
the body doing the wrong to join with him 
in calling a council for that end. There is 
no violation of principle in so doing. As 
formerly a pastor could join with his church 
in calling a council, so, in the wider view 
of the ministerial function, a minister may 
join with an association in calling a council 
of churches. 

51, d. An Ex parte Council. The 
qualifying term here implies two parties, 
but parties in controversy so intense that 
one party will not consent to join with the 
other in calling a Mutual Council. If a 



49 



party be unjustly dealt with, either by a 
church or by an association or conference 
in connection, the aggrieved may in a 
courteous manner call the attention of the 
party doing the wrong to the grievance, 
and ask it to join in calling a Mutual Coun- 
cil; and, in case the request be refused or 
unduly neglected, the aggrieved party may 
call a council to review the case and give 
advice. Such a council is rightly called an 
Ex Parte Council. 

The first thing for an Ex parte Council 
to do after organization is to offer itself as 
a Mutual Council to the party doing the 
alleged wrong. IT its offer be refused, it 
may proceed to action and issue its result. 

52. Councils should be fairly chosen. 
It is of the utmost importance that impar- 
tial churches and men be chosen on all 
councils. In Mutual Councils " each party 
is supposed to look after his own interests; 
and the courts will not scrutinize very 
closely the materials of a Mutual Council; 
actual partiality must be proved. But in 
Ex parte Councils the court have set aside 
results that they would willingly have en- 
forced on the suggestion of a possible 



50 

unfairness " (Buck, Mass, EccL Law y 219). 
Nothing could be more abhorrent to Chris- 
tian honor and the principles of our polity 
than for a party to choose a council from 
ascertained bias or partiality. A council so 
selected in whole or in major part is un- 
worthy of recognition, and its result should 
have no legal or ecclesiastical weight. 

53. Lawyers in Councils. It is held 
by some denominations that it is not con- 
sistent with the nature of the church (1 Cor. 
vi. 1-11), or conducive to its peace, for law- 
yers as such to be admitted to conduct a 
case before the local church or before a 
court or council of churches. Yet men so 
trained, if church members, may assist as 
Christian counsellors any party needing 
help in the conduct of his case. But, if 
such counsellors are members of the body 
before which the case is brought, they justly 
lose both voice and vote in making up the 
result.* The winsome spirit of Christian 

*As this is a matter of growing impor- 
tance we give the usages and rules of other 
denominations: 

The Baptist churches (§ 129): "It would 
not be proper for any member on trial be- 



51 



love, and not the rivalries of the court 
house, should control all trials before 
churches and councils. 

54, Result of Council. The formal ut- 
terance of a council is called the Result. 
This Result, in respect to matters of fact and 
jurisdiction, provided the council be fairly 

fore the church, to bring a person who is 
not a member to appear as his advocate and 
plead his cause." — Hiscox's Directory. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church (§ 131): 
"The accused shall have the right to call 
to his assistance, as counsel, any mem- 
ber in good and regular standing in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church." — Discipline 
(1872) § 347. 

The Presbyterian Church (§ 130): "No 
professional counsel shall be permitted to 
appeal* and plead in cases of process in any 
of our ecclesiastical courts. But if any 
accused person feels unable to represent 
and plead his own cause to advantage, he 
may request any minister or elder, belong- 
ing to the judicatory before which he ap- 
pears, to prepare and exhibit his cause as 
he may judge proper. But the minister or 
elder so engaged, shall not be allowed * * 
to sit in judgment as a member of the 
judicatory." — Discipline, XXI. This rule is 
rigidly enforced. — Digest (187 3), 513, 514. 



52 



called and impartially conducted (§ 52), is 
final. The civil courts will not go behind 
it, and the party or parties accepting the 
Result are protected {/ones v. Watson, U. S. 
Sup. Ct. 13 Wallace, 679, seq.; Buck's Mass. 
JEccl. Law, 204-246). But the Result, in 
respect to the party or parties calling the 
council, is advisory; that is, either party or 
both parties may accept or reject the Result, 
in whole or in part, according to their good 
pleasure. This advisory nature of the 
Result ensures the independence of the 
churches. 

55. Procedure in Councils. All the 
proceedings of a council should be calm, 
deliberate, impartial, and orderly, as befits 
a gathering of the churches of Christ. To 
secure these ends some order of procedure 
in business should be observed (§ 151), and 
the ordinary parliamentary rules should be 
followed (§§ 152-161). 

56. Reports of Delegates. As a coun- 
cil is constructively the invited churches in 
consultation (§ 38), the delegates are but 
the representatives of said churches, and 
as such they are bound to report their do- 
ings in council to their respective churches. 



.53 

This is necessary in order to the full un- 
derstanding of those common affairs which 
lie at trie foundation of all church fellow- 
ship. Hence the duty should never be 
neglected (§ 68). 

ii. — Church Associations, 

57. An Association of Churches. Con- 
gregational churches within specified dis- 
tricts meet in stated gatherings by pastors 
and delegates, with such ministers as may 
be allowed membership in them (§ 80), un- 
der constitutions defining membership, ob- 
jects, functions, and limitations; and such 
bodies are Associations of churches. 

58. Kinds of Associations. They are 
divided into four kinds: 

a. District Associations. These em- 
brace the Congregational churches within 
a small district, usually smaller than a 
State. They hold their meetings, generally, 
twice a year. 

b. State Associations. These include 
the churches of larger districts, as whole 
States, though sometimes including churches 
in other States. They meet annually. 



54 

c. National Associations. These in- 
clude the churches of whole nations ot 
countries; like "The Congregational Union 
of England and Wales," formed in 1833; 
and "The National Council of the Congre- 
gational Churches of the United States," 
organized in 187 1, and meeting every third 
year thereafter (§§ 163-165); "The Congre- 
gational Union of Ontario and Quebec," 
formed in 1853, out of the Congregational 
Union of Canada East and West; "The 
Congregational Union and Mission of Vic- 
toria" (Australia), organized in i860. 

d. An Ecumenical Union. Before the 
Congregational churches shall fully express 
the unity (§§ 35, ^) for which Christ, their 
Head, prayed (John xvii, 20-23), they must 
widen their fellowship into an Ecumenical 
Union or Association, meeting either occa- 
sionally or statedly, as decennially. This 
is needed also to bind the churches which 
we are planting in heathen lands into such 
sympathy and fellowship with -the home 
churches, that they shall be saved to the 
doctrine and polity in which they have been 
planted (See 16 Coitg. Quarterly, 291- 303). 

59. Names of Associations. They are 



55 

variously named. In this country the pre- 
vailing name is "Association," both for 
district and for State bodies. " Confer- 
ence " is often used, but as it is liable to 
confound our churches with those of 
another polity, it is being discarded for 
" Association." In Great Britain and her 
Provinces, "Associations " are used as names 
of district bodies; and "Unions," of the 
larger bodies. 

60. Membership in Associations. At 
the convention called for the purpose of 
organizing the Association, the churches 
adopt a constitution, defining the mem- 
bership; each church, in virtue of its essen- 
tial equality with others, being entitled to 
the same number of delegates; for it is the 
individuality of the church that is repre- 
sented, and not it size. Thus equality 
among the churches as among the mem- 
bers is preserved. Any other principle of 
representation is dangerous, giving to met- 
ropolitan churches undue influence {New 
Englander, 1878,514-520). Unless restricted 
by the constitution, each church may elect 
as delegate whom it will of its members, 
but it cannot go beyond that membership 
for a representative. 



56 

61. Objects of Associations. Associa- 
tions of churches are organized for a 
broader, a more inclusive and systematic, 
fellowship than occasional councils afford 
(§ 38); for co-operation in the business of 
evangelizing the world (§§ 137, 138); and for 
the manifestation of their unity (§§ 36, 
58, d), that the world may believe. These 
things are enjoined, and can be exemplified 
better in free churches than in any other 

(§ 127). 

62. Authority of Associations — what. 

The constitutions of these bodies usually 
provide against the exercise of ecclesiasti- 
cal authority over churches, ministers, or 
individuals. Yet, they have the common 
right of self-protection, to enforce the pro- 
visions of their constitutions against un- 
sound or disorderly members (§ 64). 

63. Responsibility of Associations. 
While Associations have no authority ex- 
cept that of self -protection, they are them- 
selves accountable under the law of Chris- 
tian fellowship. If they apostatize from 
the faith or walk disorderly, the law of 
fellowship which excludes a violater of that 
fellowship from a local church or from an 



57 

Association, excludes an Association, when 
a vioiater of it, from fellowship with other 
similar or larger bodies. An Association 
may be excluded for cause from State and 
National fellowship, otherwise their consti- 
tutions and doctrinal bases are null (§§ 23, 
64, 65, 85). 

64. Associations not Presbyterial. 
No one who understands the facts will call 
this right which Associations of churches, 
•like all other bodies, have to protect them- 
selves from unwelcome intruders, Presby- 
terial. It has no elements of the Presbytery 
in it, except that of self-protection (§ 62). 
The Presbytery is composed of presbyters 
and elders from the Sessions of the churches 
composing it. The membership of those 
churches exhaust their rights and liberties 
in choosing their respective elders for the 
Sessions; while from each Session commis- 
sioners are chosen to Presbytery and Synod 
by the Session itself. Then, too, the records 
of a church are subject to Presbytery for 
approval, and its pulpit is in the hands of 
the Presbytery. A Presbyterian church is 
not free, therefore, to manage its own 
affairs with no power except in heaven to 



58 

call it to account for what it does; but it is 
subject to the Presbytery, the Synod, and 
the General Assembly (§ 130). 

There is nothing of this right and power 
in an Association of churches to regulate 
the internal affairs of a church in connec- 
tion. That church is independent of all 
external control. Its discipline and records 
and pulpit are its own, to do, and to keep, 
and to fill as it may elect. All this we hold 
as Scriptural (§ 34) and sacred. But, when 
it asks for the fellowship of other churches 
in councils or in Associations, it seeks to 
enter into reciprocal relations* (§ 23). It 
has no right to force itself on their fellow- 
ship. It must show its claim to their recog- 
nition in Christian beliefs and Christian 
practices, its Creed and Rules; and they 
have the right to inspect the same and vote 
whether or not the applying church can be 
f ellowshipped. And if, after admission into 
fellowship, that church lapses in faith or 
practice or both, it has broken the con- 
ditions of fellowship, its "covenant," as the 
courts call it, and the Association has the 
right to ascertain the fact and to cut it off 
from fellowship (§ 63). This does not 






59 

trench on its internal management, but sim- 
ply adjusts its external relations to that 
internal management, by cutting it off from 
the privileges of a covenant which it has 
broken. Nor is this a new thing. Our 
churches have always practiced it. They 
provided for it in the Cambridge Platform 
by councils (ch. xv., 2) and "the coercive 
power of the magistrate " (ch. xvii., 8, 9), 
and they used the latter power freely in 
ecclesiastical matters (see my article in 
New Englander y 1883, 461-491). The right 
of self-protection in fellowship was used in 
the Unitarian apostasy during the first 
third of the present century. There is 
nothing peculiar in allowing it to Associa- 
tions of churches (§ 57), guarded by right 
of appeal to councils mutually chosen (§ 
50). The denial of this right is the nega- 
tion of fellowship, and ends in church 
isolation. If some heretical church or 
churches should send delegates to our Dis- 
trict, State, or National Associations, would 
not the doctrinal bases and conditions of 
membership exclude them ? This right we 
have always asserted and exercised, with- 
out trenching on the liberty of local 



60 



churches. Hence we do not make an As- 
sociation a Presbytery, or any thing like it, 
by giving it the natural right of self-pro- 
tection. 

65. Standing in Associations, a. Min- 
isterial Standing (§ 80) is of the utmost 
importance to the welfare of the churches; 
but there is not at present a clear appre- 
hension of what it is, or where it should be 
held, and hence no uniform practice. It 
ought to be held in Associations of churches, 
for reasons given in another place (§§ 81— 

8 5)- 

b. Churches nave standing also in Asso- 
ciations. They are admitted by vote on 
approval of Articles of Faith and Standing 
Rules (§ 23, b) and can be expelled by vote 
for cause (§§ 6$, 64). Churches, like min- 
isters, not in connection, hold no account- 
able relations to Congregational fellowship. 
As fellowship is reciprocal in rights, privi- 
leges, and duties (§§ 23, 64), its privi- 
leges' cannot be shared without its corres- 
ponding duties. Hence associated churches 
cannot be held responsible in any degree 
for the faith and practice of unassociated 



61 

churches. Standing in some Association is 
requisite to true church fellowship. 

66. Co-ordinate Bodies. Bodies in 

which standing (§ 65) is held, whether of 
churches, or of ministers, or of both, are 
co-ordinate in respect to that standing. 
Such standing is transferable from one 
body to another on request. And the action 
of any such co-ordinate jpody is entitled to* 
the cofidence and respect of all. Hence a 
church or minister excluded or expelled 
from one such body should not be received 
into another, without proof of repentance 
and amendment on the part of the said 
church or minister. If wrong has been 
done in the exclusion or expulsion, appeal 
should be had to a mutual council chosen 
by the parties involved (§ 50). 

67. Relation of Delegates to Associa- 
tions. It is the church which has member- 
ship and standing in the Association, and 
not its delegates (§ 57). Hence the church 
is enrolled as present in its delegate or 
delegates, and such enrollment gives no 
membership or standing in the body to 
delegates, whether ministers or laymen, ex- 
cept as the representatives of the church 



62 

sending them for that single meeting. If 
each church be entitled to be represented 
by its pastor and one delegate, that pastor 
by such representation acquires no other 
or different connection with the Associa- 
tion than his fellow delegate acquires. He 
ceases at the close of each meeting to hold 
any personal connection with the Associa- 
tion; precisely as his fellow delegate does. 
He can, therefore, no more claim to acquire 
ministerial standing (§ 80) in the body by 
such representation than his delegate can. 
Ministerial standing is something entirely 
different (§§ 80-85). 

68. Reports of Delegates. As dele- 
gates are selected to represent the churches 
in the meetings of the Associations, they 
should, as in the case of councils (§ 56) 
report, on their return, to the churches 
sending them. This is needful in order to 
keep the churches informed and interested. 
Besides, the churches, since all members 
cannot attend, express their fellowship 
through these delegates, and the delegates 
should bring back and express to the mem- 
bers the salutations and greetings of the 
whole fraternity. This important duty 
should not be neglected. 



63 

iii. — Ministerial Associations. 

69. Origin of Ministerial Associations. 

They had their origin in professional needs 
and Christian fellowship, which were not 
satisfied in occasional councils. Hence 
ministers met together, after the just jeal- 
ousy of independent churches had subsided 
enough to permit them, and formed Asso- 
ciations. 

70. Nature of Ministerial Associa- 
tions. Their nature is a little mixed. Some 
are mere professional clubs; but from early 
times, as the Cambridge Platform broke 
down in its theory of the ministry (§ 73), 
some sort of ministerial standing (§ 80) has 
been held in them, which has been recog- 
nized by the civil courts (see our discussion 
in the New E x ng lander , 1883, 461—491). Hence 
some Associations expressly recognize the 
fact, and give or withdraw such standing as 
the case may require. Ministerial standing 
ought, however, to be held in Associations 
of churches (§§ 80-85). 

71. Use of Ministerial Associations. 

They have been great professional helps; 
but their chief use has been as stepping- 



64 

stones for the churches over the gulf be- 
tween isolation and* stated fellowship. Our 
churches were afraid of ministerial rule 
through stated fellowship. The ministers, 
through their Associations, notwithstanding 
occasional slips, proved that stated fellow- 
ship, even when confined to the clergy, 
does not logically or necessarily lead to 
centralization of power, or the use of coer- 
cion. When this had been shown, church 
fellowship in Associations arose with rap- 
idity. 

72. Continuance of Ministerial Asso- 
ciations. As church fellowship has grown 
into favor, the Ministerial Associations have 
declined, and some have been merged in 
church Associations. They are few out of 
New England. There appears a tendency 
to substitute for them Congregational Clubs, 
composed of ministers and lavmen. 

V. — The Christian Ministry. 

73. The Ministry a Function, not an 
Official Relation. The early New Eng- 
land churches held that the ministry is an 
official relation (§ 92). Ordination was the 



65 

inauguration into office of a pastor of a 
particular church, and removal from that 
office was deposition from the ministry. 
That single act of removal made the min- 
ister a layman again (Cambridge Platform, 
ix. 2, 6, 7; x. 6). Dr. Dexter declares this to 
be "the necessary verdict of the principles 
of Congregationalism in regard to this mat- 
ter" [Congregationalism, Revised 4th ed., 
150). This view, however, did not stand 
for a generation; and yet it was not form- 
ally rejected until the Boston Council, 1865, 
declared that the ministry includes all who, 
having been ordained to the ministry of 
the Word, have not forfeited the rights and 
privileges conferred by ordination, and been 
deposed {Boston Platform, 65, 66). By the 
Cambridge Platform only about one-fourth 
of our ministers are ministers at all. 

The ministry is a function of the Chris- 
tian Church, to which men are called of 
God and set apart by the churches, to 
preach the Gospel as missionaries, evan- 
gelists, and pastors, and to administer the 
sacraments. This theory of the ministry is 
held by all denominations. 

This theory of the ministry does not give 

6 



66 



power or authority to ministers in or over 
churches. An ordained man must be called 
to the pastorate (§§ 76, 91), in order to be- 
come an officer in any church. Until so 
chosen he can exercise only the influence 
of a private member. He may, indeed, 
hold ministerial standing (§§ 80, 85) in an 
Association of churches; but such Associa- 
tion has no authority in or over churches 
(§ 62). Hence no danger arises to the 
liberty of the churches from this theory of 
the ministry. 

74. The Ministry not a Priesthood. 
Christ, having offered himself once for all, 
abolished all sacrifices; and hence he gave 
to his ministers neither the functions nor 
the prerogatives of priests. Those ordained 
to the work of the ministry are conse- 
quently separated from the brethren only 
by official and ministerial, not by priestly, 
marks. 

75. The Ministry one Order. The 
ministry are called, in the New Testament, 
elders, bishops, pastors, teachers, evangel- 
ists, and, perhaps, angels; but these are 
only different titles of the same order, and 
all in this order are essentially equal. They 



■ G7 

are brethren, of equal dignity, rank, and 
authority. A bishop, in New Testament 
usage, is only an elder, a pastor, having in 
rank, grade, order, authority, or position, 
no pre-eminence whatever over his brethren. 
That the Apostles left no successors is 
clear from their special qualifications and 
functions. They were called not merely to 
the proclamation of the Gospel, but to the 
ordering of the churches, and the giving of 
a supreme rule of faith and practice in 
their writings. To accomplish these things 
they had special qualifications: 

a. They were all personally instructed by 
the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts i. 21, 22). Paul 
was no exception (1 Cor. ix. r; Gal. i. 11, 12). 

b. They were all personally selected by 
Christ (Lk. vi. 13; Acts i. 23-25; Acts ix. 

is). 

c. They were individually inspired of God 
(John xiv. 26; xvi. 13; 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13; xiv. 
37; Gal. i. 11, 12; John xx. 23). 

d. They performed special miracles as 
proofs of their apostleship (Acts ii. 43; 2 
Cor. xii. 12). 

e. They had universal authority oyer 



• 63 

churches (Acts xvi. 4; i Cor. v. 3-6; 2 Cor. 
X 8; xiii. 10). 

As these qualifications and chief functions 
ceased with the apostles, they have no suc- 
cessors. 

76. Ministers when Church Officers. 
A minister is not an officer in any church 
by virtue of his ordination and member- 
ship, but only by virtue of his election to 
an office in that church (§§ 76, 91). When 
chosen by it to officiate in the ministry of 
the Word, he becomes, as pastor, its highest 
officer; but he retains this position only so 
long as he fills its pastorate. The pastor 
should become a member of the church in 
which he labors. A minister has the right 
to vote only in the church of which he is a 
member. 

77. a. Ordination of Ministers. Some 
believers are called to the work of the min- 
istry by the Holy Ghost, but they are or- 
dinarily set apart to it by the laying on of 
bands in ordination. This ordination con- 
fers no peculiar gifts and graces, and is not, 
therefore, necessary to the existence of the 
ministry, but only to the well ordering of 
the churches. 



69 

b. Licentiates are riot ministers, but lay- 
men approbated to preach the Gospel as 
candidates for ordination to the ministry. 
This approbation is given by Associations 
either of churches or of ministers. 

c. It must, however, be firmly held that 
each church has the power to ordain, as it 
has the power to choose, its own minister. 
This power belongs to it in virtue of its 
autonomy, or complete independence, in 
the management of its own affairs. Take 
this right and power away, and no church- 
can be in itself complete; for it must de- 
pend on some ecclesiastical power out of 
itself to ordain its pastors. If that power 
should refuse to ordain, the church could 
have no ministry. The power to ordain its 
pastors is, therefore, one of the inalienable 
rights of independent churches. 

But inasmuch as a church of Christ stands 
in relations to other churches (§ 23) as parts 
of one kingdom (§ 35), a due regard for the 
fellowship of the churches requires, that, 
in every pastoral ordination, a church should 
call to its assistance sister churches. The 
ordained are put into the ministry (§ 73); 
their character and conduct affect all the 



70 

churches in connection (§ 80) ; the churches 
in connection have, 'therefore, a right to be 
protected from the ordination of bad men. 
Hence the crrcumstaaces must be extraor- 
dinary and extremely rare when a church 
is warranted in ordaining a man without 
the advice of sister churches. 

d. That advice may be had in two ways: 
(1.) By a council of churches, or (2.) By 
an Association of churches. The former 
has been the usual method, but the latter is 
equally legitimate. The church can call a 
council of churches or use the Association of 
churches for ordaining its pastor. In either 
case^ it is the church that ordains; and in; 
either case, the church by letter asks the 
other churches to assist or act in its stead 
in the ordination. If it ask the Associa- 
tion to examine and advise, the church 
itself should abstain from all voice and 
vote in giving the advice, since it is an 
interested party (§■ 52), the same as in call- 
ing councils (§42). 

e* The ordination of a missionary or of. 
an evangelist without pastoral charge, rests 
on a somewhat different basis. Such a 
minister. (§ 73) is not a pastor or church 






71 



officer (§§ 76, 91). The integrity or inde- 
pendence of no church is impaired, if an 
Association of churches, without request 
from a particular church, proceed to ordain 
him. No church is constrained to call him 
to be its pastor. No church is thereby pre- 
vented from ordaining its own pastor. No 
church, even should it call a council for the 
ordination of such a minister, would hold 
itself responsible for him. There is no 
reason then, why an Association of churches 
should not ordain him, without the inter- 
vention of a local church. 

78. Installation of Pastors. When a 
minister has been called to the pastorate of 
a church, a council is sometimes convoked 
to install him as pastor. This council in- 
quires into his call and acceptance, his 
credentials and membership, examines him 
in respect to beliefs and experiences, and, 
if advising his installation, installs him on 
behalf of the church. Under the Cambridge 
Platform this was a re-ordination, having a 
legal as well as an ecclesiastical element. 
From some cause or causes, installations 
are falling into disuse, so that only about 



one-third of the ministers in pastoral work 
are installed. 

In view of these facts, one State (Michi- 
gan) is trying a modified form of installa- 
tion which leaves the legal element out, 
and retains only the ecclesiastical element, 
somewhat after the English and Canadian 
custom. The inspection of the contract be- 
tween pastor and people by a council, and 
all that is involved in it respecting the dis- 
solution of the pastoral relation, arose, it is 
claimed, from the union of church and state 
in New England, which inspection should 
be left behind, since the ecclesiastical ele- 
ment contains all that is now needed. 

79. Recognition of Pastors. We quote 
from the Minutes of the General Association 
of Michigan for 1882: 

"a. Whenever a minister accepts a call 
to the pastoral charge of any church, 
whether for a definite or indefinite term, a 
council of neighboring churches of our 
order should be called by such church and 
pastor, at their earliest convenience, for his 
recognition as pastor of said church — it be- 
ing understood that the action of said 
council shall have no bearing whatever 



73 

upon the legal or ecclesiastical tenure, as 
to the fact, name, salary, or time of the 
pastorate thus recognized. 

"b. The duties of this Council shall be: 

(i.) The examination of the pastor's quali- 
fications for his position, especially in min- 
isterial standing, in doctrinal views, and in 
religious experience. 

(2.) The approval or disapproval of these 
by formal vote. 

(3.) The recognition, if the vote is one of 
approval, in public services, as sermon, 
prayer, and right-hand of fellowship. 

" c. When such pastorate is about to ter- 
minate, for any cause except death, the 
pastor and church, or either of them in 
case the other refuses, may call a council of 
neighboring churches to inquire into and 
advise upon all ecclesiastical matters speci- 
fied in the letters missive concerning it; 
but it shall be regarded as entirely orderly 
for the church and pastor to dissolve the 
pastoral relation between them without the 
calling of a council (p 45). 

80. Ministerial Standing. A man or- 
dained to the ministry holds such a relation 
to the churches (§ 73), that his conduct 



74 

affects them for good or for evil, but especi- 
ally those with which he is most intimately 
connected. He stands among them as a 
minister, recognized as such, with the rights, 
privileges, honors and duties of a minister. 
This relationship is one of accountability, 
of obligation (§§ 23, 64, 65). Hence arises 
ministerial standing, some responsible con- 
nection with a body which can hold him to 
account for his conduct as a minister. His 
ordination does not open to him the whole 
range of our churches, through which he 
can roam at will with no one to molest or 
make afraid. He must now, as formerly, 
l>e held accountable. Hence he must hold 
membership in some body, as at the first, 
which can bring him to account, and which 
shall itself be held accountable for him. 
Such membership gives him ministerial 
standing. 

81. Ministerial Standing once held in 
Local Churches. Under the Cambridge 
Platform, since no ordained man was a 
minister except while he was a pastor (§ 73), 
a man's ministerial standing was in the 
local church which called and settled him 
as pastor. The church by vote could take 



75 

ministerial standing away from him, and 
remand him to the unofficial membership 
again, as a mere layman (§ 73). It is true 
that a council was provided for when con- 
venient, but its action when called was only 
advisory. The power of deposition was in 
the local church. If the pastor felt ag- 
grieved with the action, he could ask the 
church to join in calling a mutual council 
(§ 50), and, that failing, he could call an ex 
parte council (§ 51); but neither of these 
could do more than advise his restoration 
to the ministry by a call from his old or 
from some other church. His ministerial 
standing was wholly in the hands of lay- 
men. 

82. This Standing fell with the Pas- 
toral Theory. It gave way as inadequate 
and false before the facts; it fell when the 
true theory came in. The change in theory 
involved a corresponding transfer of min- 
isterial standing to some other body than 
the local church. This fact was not clearly 
apprehended at first, and even now confu- 
sion is found to exist respecting it (see our 
article in New Englander, 1883, 477 seq). 

83. Ministerial Standing in Associa- 



7G 

tions of Ministers. This is a dangerous 
place for ministerial standing, since to hold 
it there puts a gulf between the ministry 
and the laity. The standing of ministers 
is thereby put wholly into their own hands, 
and wholly beyond the control of the 
churches. This arrangement would give 
clerical rule, or compel the churches to go 
outside the Associations for their ministers. 
The past has seen the evils of such a sepa- 
ration between the people and their spiritual 
teachers, and men have wisely opposed the 
holding of ministerial standing in Ministe- 
rial Associations. It is neither safe to put 
such accountable standing in the hands of 
the clergy, nor possible to let it lie around 
loose. It will have an abiding place, and 
it should be provided with a normal and 
safe home in our polity, which cannot be in 
Ministerial Associations. 

84. Ministerial Standing cannot be 
held in Councils. This arises from the 
nature of councils. They are temporary 
meetings of the churches, selected for a 
specified purpose, and ceasing to exist on 
adjournment (§ 44). A council may ordain 
or depose from the ministry, but ministerial 



77 

standing cannot be held in it; for when it 
gives its result, it ceases to exist. A coun- 
cil may be called to inquire into the stand- 
ing of a minister, or to withdraw fellowship 
from him; but in either case, the council 
inquires into facts and advises accordingly. 
Such inquiry is radically different from the 
permanent standing in the ministry needed. 
85. Ministerial Standing is properly 
held in Associations of Churches. In 
such bodies, outside of New England, min- 
isterial standing is now generally held. 
That standing was transferred, in 1882, 
from the Newark Association to the Newark 
Conference, New Jersey, on the ground 
that it more properly belonged to the cus- 
tody of the churches than to the clergy. 
Instead of being in the hands of laymen, as 
in early times in New England, or in the 
hands of the ministry, as in ministerial 
Associations, ministerial standing should be 
held in bodies where both the churches and 
the ministers are represented, as in church 
Associations. Here all interests will be best 
conserved, and the evils of either extreme 
be avoided. Those who fear the holding 
of this standing in ministerial bodies can 



78 



hardly object to holding it in church Asso- 
ciations. 

A minister joins an Association of churches, 
as a church does, on credentials (§§ 89, 90), 
by the formal vote of the body. This con- 
stitutes him a member of the said Associa- 
tion, responsible to it for his ministerial 
conduct and faith, and it makes the Asso- 
ciation also accountable for him: that is, 
the Association may dismiss him to a co-or- 
dinate body (§ 66), with credentials, or, in 
case of unministerial conduct, can arraign, 
try, and expel him (§§ 62, 63). Any mem- 
ber thus expelled loses his standing (§ 80) 
in the Congregational ministry. He is a 
minister still, but our denomination is not 
responsible for him (§§ 23, 64, 65), and his 
deeds cannot be charged to our fellowship. 
In case he has been unjustly dealt with, 
redress may be had as already indicated 

(§§5o,5i). 

86. Ministerial Discipline. The apos- 
tles were not all true men, and the ministry 
now by its social position attracts a few 
unworthy men into its ranks. It is a sad 
but nevertheless imperative duty, as occa- 
sion requires, to bring such men to discip- 



79 



line. This may be done in one of two ways r 
namely: 

87. a. By Associations. If a minister 
hold his standing (§ 80) in an Association, 
either of ministers or of churches and min- 
isters, and if he do things worthy of dis- 
cipline, it is the duty of the Association to 
deal with him according to his deserts. In 
the strong language of the Supreme Court 
of Vermont: "If it be suspected that a wolf 
in sheep's clothing has invaded their ranks,, 
it is not only for the interest of all the mem- 
bers of the Association to know the fact, 
but it is their imperative ditty to make inquiry 
and ascei'tain the fact;" "and, on convic- 
tion, to administer proper punishment" (51 
Vt. 501; 31 Am. Repts. 704). That punish- 
ment may be either suspension or expulsion 
from membership, according to his deserts. 
Lest the Association do him injustice, and 
that without redress, the aggrieved should 
have the right of appeal to a council as 
before stated (§§ 50, 51). This covers the 
cases of all in connection; but some are 
not in connection. 

88. b. By Councils. The following reso- 
lution, passed by the National Council of 



80 



1880, covers all cases, whether in connection 
or not, namely: 

"Resolved, That the body of churcnes in 
any locality have the inalienable right of 
extending ministerial fellowship to, or with- 
holding fellowship from, any person within 
their bounds, no matter what his relations 
may be in church membership or ecclesias- 
tical affiliations, the proceedings to be com- 
menced by any church, and to be con- 
ducted with due regard to equity." 
{Minutes, 17). 

This resolution asserts for "the body of 
churches in any locality " " the inalienable 
right of extending ministerial fellowship 
to, or withholding fellowship from, any 
person within their bounds." They may 
elect to do this through an Association 
(§§ 57> 87), and when they choose so to 
assert their right, no council called from 
beyond their locality, of whomsoever com- 
posed, can be introduced to inquire into 
the matter, unless that Association be a 
party to its calling (§§50, 51). To ignore 
this action of the churches of the vicinity, 
or to assume to sit in judgment upon it in 
any way, is a subversion of their " inalien- 
able right." 



81 

If the resolution be confined to councils 
alone, it lies open to two practical objec- 
tions: (i.) that what is everybody's busi- 
ness is nobody's; and (2.) that no one 
church will be likely to call a sister church's 
pastor to account. While a church might 
possibly be found which would begin a 
process of discipline against a minister hav- 
ing no connection with us, but troubling 
our heritage, it is not probable that one 
could be found which would call ^ minister 
to account whose ministerial standing is 
held in an Association, since the Associa- 
tion could do it to better advantage. 

But what if the Association will not do 
it? Then the law of fellowship requires that 
the Association itself be called to account 
by other Associations, as tolerating heresy 
or immorality (§ 63); besides, any church 
may carry out its constitutive principle 
(§ 27), and withdraw its fellowship from 
any church, or from the Association with 
which it stands connected; or it may call a 
council in the matter, according to the 
above rule. It is not in subjection, but is 
free to act as the sense of fealty to Christ 
Jesus may indicate. 



82 

89. Ministerial and Church Creden- 
tials, a. Ministerial credentials are papers 
which define a minister's standing in some 
ecclesiastical body or connection, and are 
therefore of the greatest value to all seek- 
ing fellowship among us. They consist of 
ordination papers; the action of dismissing 
councils, or of councils of discipline, or of 
inquiry; and papers of dismissal and com- 
mendation from co-ordinate bodies (§ 66) 
in which ministerial standing is held. So 
important is such standing that the Na- 
tional Council, in 1877, passed the follow- 
ing: 

"Resolved, That * * * we earnestly 
recommend to the churches, before employ- 
ing any minister, the careful ascertainment 
of the fact of his regular standing in 
some recognized ecclesiastical connection'' 
{Minutes, 24). 

This has been reaffirmed by subsequent 
action of the Council. 

b. A church wishing to join an Associa- 
tion presents its Creed and Standing Rules 
to that Association (§§ 23, 60) on which it 
may be admitted to membership. If, after- 
wards, it desires to transfer its connection 



83 

to some other co-ordinate body (§ 66), it 
should ask and receive a certificate of mem- 
bership and recommendation to that body, 
on which it may be received into member- 
ship therein. Such papers may be called 
credentials of church standing. 

90. Contents of Ministerial Creden- 
tials. When a minister brings credentials 
to us from communions in which the church 
membership of ministers, as well as their 
ministerial standing, is held in a Presby- 
tery, Conference, Synod, or similar body, 
his credentials contain both his church 
membership and his ministerial standing, 
and are not discharged of their full con- 
tents until he has been received on them 
into a local church, and into an Association. 
They cover both relations, and should be 
so regarded by our bodies. Hence a min- 
ister transferring his connection from such 
body to our fellowship, should present his 
ministerial credentials first (§ 89) to the 
Association he desires to join, as covering 
his standing as a minister, and then to the 
local church he serves, t as a certificate of 
church membership (§ 119), on which each 
body may receive him. 



84 

VI. — Church Officers. 

The chief officers of a Christian cnurch 
are the Pastor, and the Deacons. 

i. — The Pastorate. 

91. The Pastor. We have already 
treated of the ministry (§§ 73-90), includ- 
ing missionaries, evangelists, pastors. When 
a church by formal vote calls a man 
either for a definite or for an indefinite 
time, to be its teacher in spiritual things, 
he by entering upon the duties of the office, 
becomes the pastor of that church (§ 76). 

In each apostolic church there was a 
presbytery or board of elders (Acts xiv. 23; 
xx. 17; 1 Tim. iv. 14), which divided the 
duties of the pastorate, and conducted in 
large measure the discipline of the church 
(1 Tim. v. 17). Still the ultimate power of 
control lay in the whole church assembly 
(1 Cor. v. 13; 2 Cor. ii. 6). The Boston Plat- 
form says: "In the primitive churches, a 
plural eldership" was "the rule, and not 
the exception. In our American churches, 
at the beginning, it was thought needful 
that every church should have at least three 



85 

elders, of whom two were to labor in word 
and doctrine, and the other was to be asso- 
ciated with them in all their work as 
bishops or overseers of the flock. While 
no church is rightly subjected to any pres- 
bytery exterior to itself, each church should 
have its own presbytery " (pp. 24, 25 . 

The Church Board (S99, c) can with great 
advantage be made such a presbytery, and 
there may be added in cases of discipline 
the jury system (§ 108), by which changes 
the good order and purity of our churches 
will be conserved. The laying of the bur- 
dens of the whole primitive church presby- 
ter}-, and of the whole plural eldership of 
early Xew England, on the shoulders of one 
man as pastor, has well nigh incurred the 
guilt of the Pharisees (Matt, xxiii. 4). It is 
more, in this stirring age, than one frail 
man can bear without damage to the 
churches. The Apostolic way is better, to 
which we should return as soon as possible. 

92. Induction into Office. In former 
days, under the Cambridge Platform, some 
form of service seemed needful to inau- 
gurate the chosen candidate in office, either 
ordination, or installation which was reor- 



8G 



dination; since to be out of the pastorate 
was to be out of the ministry altogether 
(§ 73). Hence came the custom of treating 
none but installed ministers as pastors, and 
others in active service as "acting pastors/' 
" stated supplies," sometimes as " hirelings." 
This distinction places the essence of the 
pastorate in the induction into office and 
not in the calling unto office, whereas the 
Cambridge Platform itself puts it in the 
election to and acceptance of office and not 
in the induction or ordination (ch. ix. 2). 

It was natural, when the pastoral theory 
of the ministry gave way (§ 73), that instal- 
lation, which was re-ordination, should be 
neglected as no longer needful to the rela- 
tion of pastor and people, especially in 
cases of inconvenience or dislike of the 
legal element involved in it (§ 78). This 
neglect of the installing council and ser- 
vice has gone on until only about one-third 
of those in the pastoral work are installed, 
and there is need of adjusting terms to the 
facts. As the essence of the pastorate lies 
in the election to the office and the conse- 
quent entrance upon its duties, and not in 
any formal induction into office, all who 



87 

have complied with the essential part should 
be held to be pastors, and should be so 
named. 

Yet, while not essential, the induction of 
a pastor into his office by installation, or, 
better, by recognition (§ 79), is both a 
seemly and a useful service, and ought 
therefore to be had in all cases. 

93. Duties of a Pastor. He, as pastor, 
preaches the Word; administers the sacra- 
ments (§ 102); presides at church meetings, 
when not relating to himself; cares like a 
shepherd for his flock; but he has not the 
power of veto or control in church action 
(§ 28). 

ii. — The Diaconate. 

94. The Diaconate a Lay Office and 

Honorable. Though the diaconate is a 
lay office, it is shown to be an honorable 
one by the qualifications prescribed for 

those filling it (1 Tim. iii. 8-10); by the 
laying on of hands (Acts vi. 6), and by the 
words of Paul: " For they that have served 
well as deacons gain to themselves a good 
standing, and great boldness in the faith 
which is in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. iii. 13). 



88 

95* Deaconesses. The election of faith- 
ful women to the office of deacon is com- 
mended by the implied injunction of Paul 
(i Tim. iii, n), by the example of the 
primitive churches (Rom. xvi. i), and also 
of the early churches of New England 
(Cambridge Platform, chap. vii. 7). 

96. Duties of the Diaconate. To have 
special care for the poor and sick of the 
church; to distribute the bread and wine 
at the Lord's Supper; to counsel and assist 
the pastor; and to exercise a subordinate 
oversight over the spiritual interests of the 
church, are the chief duties of this office. 

97. Election of Deacons. Deacons 
were formerly elected for life; but lately 
some churches elect them for a term of 
years, making the office rotary; while a few 
provide against the re-election of a deacon 
until one year has elapsed from the time 
he ceased to hold the office. The church 
can vacate the office of a deacon, as it does 
that of a pastor, whenever its welfare de- 
mands it, yet this power should be used 
with great forbearance and discretion. 

98. Installation of Deacons. Deacons 
were originally installed by the laying on 



89 

of hands (Acts vi. 6). Such an induction 
tends to give dignity to the office; and the 
qualifications and responsibilities of the 
diaconate demand at least a formal and 
public assent to the full creed of the church 
(§ 139) by deacons and deaconesses before 
entering upon the office. 

iii. — Other Church Officers. 

99. A church may choose other offi- 
cers. Such officers are a scribe or clerk, 
treasurer, Church Board, superintendent, 
and teachers in its Sunday school, commit- 
tees of inquiry, etc. "In such appoint- 
ments, the church institutes no new order 
of officers, but only distributes among its 
members certain duties belonging to the 
brotherhood " {Boston Platform, 26). 

a. Church Clerk. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that the proceedings of all business 
meetings of the church be accurately kept 
and recorded in a church record book. This 
book should be of large size and strongly 
bound. The records should be neatly en- 
grossed in it, and approved by the church, 
that they may have legal value. The most 



00 



competent person in the church, except the 
pastor; should be chosen to this office, and 
should be continued in it year after year. 
No church can take too great care of its 
records, or be too scrupulous in approving 
them, as a legal controversy would show. 

b. Church Treasurer. The treasurer 
of the church should be honest, and so 
affable that he can collect a church debt 
without giving offence. As church support 
is voluntary, the treasurer should have the 
confidence of everybody. Hence the best 
pecuniary interests of the church demand 
the election of a good treasurer. 

c. The Church Board. Most of our 
churches have a body, composed of the 
pastor and deacons and elected members, 
which is called the " Standing Committee," 
or "Examining Committee," but which 
would be better designated the " Church 
Board" or the " Board." This Church 
Board (§ 143, (4) ) has taken the place in 
part of the primitive board of elders found 
in each church planted by the apostles 
■(§ 91), and is of the greatest importance in 
the discipline (§ 108) and management of 
the church. It may stand for the local 



91 

church prosbytery referred to by Paul (i 
Tim. iv. 14), somewhat modified in form as 
in name. The wisest men should be chosen 
upon this Church Board, since the manage- 
ment of the church affairs falls so largely 
into their hands. 

d. Committees. The church can choose 
committees for any purpose it sees fit, as 
for the trial of certain cases (§ 108), and 
these committees act for the church and 
report to the church their doings. They 
cease to exist when their report has been 
received by the church (§ 153). 

e. Superintendent and Teachers of the 
Sunday School. The Sunday school is 
the church school, and the right to choose 
its Superintendent and teachers lies in the 
church and not in the school. The highest 
interests of church and school demand that 
a supervision be exercised by the church 
over the school, in the election of its officers, 
and the selection of its lessons. 



VII. — The Christian Sacraments. 

100. Baptism. The Congregational 
churches hold that the application of water 



92 

to a person in the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, is valid baptism; that this 
application may be made by sprinkling, 
pouring, or immersion; and that every un- 
baptized believer ought to confess Christ 
in this sacrament. They hold, also, that 
the children of believing parents may re- 
ceive this rite. 

101. The Lord's Supper. The Con- 
gregational churches hold that only those 
in full membership in some Evangelical 
church should be invited to partake of the 
Lord's Supper; and that all such should be 
most cordially welcomed. {Boston Platform, 
Pt. II, vii. 4). 

102. Sacraments — by whom Adminis- 
tered. Good order requires that these 
sacraments be generally administered by 
duly authorized ministers of the Gospel; 
but the efficacy of them depends wholly on 
the spirit in which they are received. Under 
pressing exigencies they may be adminis- 
tered by laymen; but these exigencies must 
be other and graver than inconvenience of 
exchange by a licentiate (§ 77), or delay of 
the ordinance for a few weeks. They must 
be extraordinary and pressing. 



93 



VIII. — Church Discipline. 

103. Offenses Disciplinable. It must 
be that offenses come, but woe to that man 
by whom the offense cometh (Matt, xviii. 7). 
All offenses are not disciplinable by the 
church; but all scandalous offenses, all 
flagrant violations of covenant vows, funda- 
mental doctrinal errors, and many minor 
offenses, call for discipline. The church 
must guard its purity of faith and practice 
by strict discipline. Yet trivial offenses 
should not be noticed; nor should a man 
be arraigned on charges which can not 
probably be proved. A church should en- 
ter upon all discipline with calmness, prayer- 
fulness, and charity, seeking purity through 
penitence. 

104. The Law of Discipline. Christ 
gave the law of discipline (Matt, xviii, 15- 
18), which, in all private offenses, should be 
literally followed. In cases of notorious 
scandal, a more summary process is war- 
ranted (§ 106). But inasmuch as one end 
of church discipline is the repentance and 
confession of the offender, the church (§ 32) 
should exhaust all wise measures to bring 



94 

him to penitence before proceeding to pub- 
lic trial. If these measures are unavailing, 
the case should be brought before the 
church and conducted with Drayer and the 
greatest impartiality. 

105. Private Offenses. The proper 
steps are definitely marked out in Matt. 
xviii, 15-18. 

First Step, The injured man is required 
to go privately to the offender and tell him 
his fault, earnestly seeking to reclaim him. 
Time for passion to subside should here be 
allowed. 

Second Step. The first effort proving un- 
availing, the injured party takes one or two 
discreet persons with him, and, in their 
presence, tells his brother his fault, and in 
a Christian way tries to bring him to a 
penitent frame of mind. If he succeed, the 
matter is dropped; for he has gained his 
brother. But if the offender continue ob- 
durate, then follows the 

Third Step. A formal complaint, usually 
in writing, should be made to the church 
(§ 146). The church, hearing the com- 
plaint, votes to entertain the same, fixes a 
day for trial, notifies the defendant of the 



95 

charges, of time of trial, and of the wit- 
nesses; and, at the set time, hears patiently 
and prayerfully the case, and renders its 
judgment (§§ 32, 112). 

106. Public Scandals. The first and sec- 
ond steps may be omitted in cases of public 
scandal, though here also the end of dis- 
cipline should be the penitent reformation 
of the guilty. In such cases any member 
may prefer the proper charges; but if no 
one assumes this responsibility, then the 
deacons or Church Board of the church 
should prefer them (§ 99, c). 

107. Procedure in Trial. The church 
having been duly called and organized, 
with moderator and clerk (§§ 93, 99, a). 
should designate some one or more to con- 
duct the case and examine witnesses, and 
should give the accused a full opportunity 
for defense (§ 53). It is often desirable to 
appoint a committee of investigation, to 
hear the case, record the testimony, and 
report the result of the examination for the 
final action of the church. Hence — 

108. Trial by Committee or Jury of 
the Church. The discipline of some offen- 
ders is difficult either through the nature 



96 

of the offense or the length of the trial, in 
which cases the church should empower its 
Church Board, or appoint another commit- 
tee, as a jury, to hear the case, record the 
evidence, and report to the church its find- 
ings and recommendations of censure, if 
any. The church acts in and through such 
a committee, and when it accepts the report 
(§ 154), the case is issued. The records of 
the case should be preserved on file, and 
the action of the church with the censure 
(§ 112), if any, should be spread upon the 
church books. This process is right and 
desirable. 

109. Rules of Evidence. Legal rules 
of evidence cannot be used in ecclesiastical 
trials, as no church, Association, or council 
has power to compel the production of 
testimony, or to punish for contempt. This 
necessitates broader rules. Hence " parties 
in interest are not excluded on account of 
bias, from giving their testimony; husband 
and wife are not prevented from testifying 
for or against each other. Hearsay evi- 
dence is not excluded. But everything 
is admissible that the council choose to 
admit, that will help them come to an un- 



97 

derstanding of the case. The Supreme 
Court has never qualified this license of 
proof, or been called to qualify it " (Buck's 
EccL Law of Mass., 227). 

This liberty of evidence applies to all 
ecclesiastical trials, whether before the 
church, an Association, or a council, since 
the reason is the same for all; though great 
care should be had lest injustice be done in 
censures based on insufficient evidence. 

1 10. Irregularities in Procedure. Ir- 
regularities do not invalidate procedure, 
unless they are of a material nature. To 
set aside a trial or procedure of any kind, 
the irregularity or irregularities must be 
the determining ground of the transaction; 
/. e. y if there had been no mistake or irregu- 
larity the result would probably have been 
otherwise. A merely technical error ought 
not to invalidate proceedings. A neglect of 
Christ's rule (Matt, xviii. 15-17), in cases of 
private offenses, would invalidate proceed- 
ings, since it might be the determining 
ground of the issue or result of the trial. 

111. Confession. The penitent confes- 
sion of the wrong-doer may stop all further 
proceedings; and no censure, or suspension, 

8 



98 



or excommunication can afterward be in- 
flicted on the offender for the sin so con- 
fessed. The confession should be made as 
public as the offense, and, if made to the 
church, the fact should be entered on the 
records of the church. 

112. Censures. These may be reproof, 
suspension, or excommunication, according 
to the gravity of the offense. 

If the excluded member shall become 
penitent for his sin, and shall desire re-ad- 
mission into church privileges again, it is 
his duty to make the facts known unto the 
church from which he has been expelled, 
and to give the requisite proof of his peni- 
tence and amendment. If the church be 
satisfied of his repentance, it should restore 
him to full membership again. This it may 
do by passing a vote reciting the facts, and 
lifting the censure inflicted. Such a vote 
restores the excommunicated to full mem- 
bership. 

113. Censure of Ministers. The rela- 
tion of an ordained man to the general fel- 
lowship of the churches is such (§ 73), that 
he should not be treated in discipline by a 
church as merely a private member. Before 



99 



the case is issued, a council of churches 
should be called to advise in the matter, 
selected by the church itself, since the 
church deals with him as a ministerial mem- 
ber, and neither as a minister, nor as a lay 
member. Such a council is neither a Mu- 
tual (§ 50), nor an Ex parte (§ 51), but a 
Uni parte Council (§ 48). 

Since, however, offenses^ demanding 
church discipline would necessarily unfit 
one for the ministry, while offenses de- 
manding ministerial discipline (§§ 87, 88) 
might not demand church action and cen- 
sure, it would be better for a church wish- 
ing to deal by way of discipline with a 
ministerial member, after the preliminary 
steps (§ 105), to ask the offending ministe- 
rial member to join in calling a Mutual 
Council (§ 50) to consider the case and 
advise in the matter. Such a course would 
rest on the fact that the church is dealing 
with a minister who stands related to all 
the churches (§ 73). No lay member could 
have such a privilege or right. Hence a 
council called by a church to advise in lay 
discipline is neither Mutual (§ 50) nor Ex 
parte (§ 51), but Uni parte (§ 48)). 



100 

114- Witnesses. Any one, whether 
church member or not, who is competent 
to give testimony (§ 109), may testify before 
a church, an Association, or a council. Wit- 
nesses cannot be held by the legal rules of 
evidence (§ 109). Hence for this as well as 
other reasons they should be put under 
oath by the moderator of the body. 

The oath or affirmation may be in the 
following or similar words: — 

" You solemnly promise, in the presence 
of the omniscient and heart-searching God, 
that you will declare the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth, according 
to the best of your knowledge, in the mat- 
ter in which you are called to witness, as 
you shall answer it to the great Judge of 
quick and dead. So help you God." 

115. Legal Protection of Parties in 
Discipline. Every one who takes part in 
good faith in any case of discipline or trial, 
whether he makes complaint, gives testi- 
mony, acts, votes, pronounces the result 
orally or in writing, before a church or any 
other body, is protected from civil suit for 
the same. This protection is involved in 
the decision of the United States Supreme 



101 

Court: /ones v. Watson, 13 Wallace, pp. 
722-734. This protection is expressly given 
by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts: 
Farnsworth v. Storrs, 5 Cushing, 412. An 
Association, even in suspending a ministe- 
rial member, and in publishing him in the 
papers, while citing him to trial, has been 
sustained by the court (Shurtleff, v. Stevens, 
51 Vt. 501; 31 Am. Repts. 704). The princi- 
ples underlying these cases have general 
application. 

116. Membership, a Covenant. "The 
idea of membership in a Congregational 
church is the idea of a covenant between 
the individual member and the church; by 
virtue of that covenant the member is 
responsible to the church for his conformity 
to the law of Christ, and the church is 
responsible for him; and this responsibility 
does not cease till the church, by some 
formal and corporate act, has declared the 
dissolution of the covenant" {Result of 
Brooklyn Council, 1874, p. 232). 

There has not, however, been perfect uni- 
formity of usage among our churches. 
Some have held the rigid rule that mem- 
bers can lose their membership in a local 



102 

church only in one of the three following 
ways, namely: (i.) By dismission to another 
church; (2.) by death; or (3.) by excom- 
munication. But milder views are now 
prevailing, though membership be still held 
to be a covenant. 

117. Dropping Members. "If any 
member be convinced that he is not truly 
regenerated, but that he professed religion 
under self-deception, and shall request a 
dissolution of his connection with the 
church, if there be no scandal in his life 
requiring discipline, his request — he hav- 
ing first been duly labored with — shall be 
granted by a simple vote declarative of the 
facts " (Roy's Manual, 21). 

In like manner members who are absent 
for a long period should be hunted up, 
asked to take letters to another church, 
such as may be given under the circum- 
stances (§ 120); but if they persist in neglect- 
ing their covenant obligations, fellowship 
should be withdrawn from them, and a 
statement of the facts put on record. 

In case a member joins another church 
without having taken a letter — a thing 
which every member should be careful to 



103 

avoid, even when a church will not receive 
him on his letter (§ 121) — his name should 
be dropped from the roll, without censure, 
by vote of the church reciting the facts. 

118. Certificate of Membership. When 
members expect to be absent for a short 
time, it is of great importance that they 
take a certificate of church membership — 
not of dismissal — which they can present 
as an introduction into the confidence, fel- 
lowship, and communion of the churches 

(§ MS)- 

119. Letters of Dismission. If mem- 
bers remove from one place to another they 
should take with them letters of dismissal 
and recommendation to some sister or 
Evangelical church. Good order and their 
own spiritual welfare require this. It is of 
the greatest importance (§ 144). 

120. Letters from Churches. The 
forms of letters from churches are different. 
Ours (§§ 119, 144) dismiss and recommend; 
unless, in peculiar cases, they certify that 
the person was a member in good standing 
at the time he left, and dismiss him with- 
out recommendation. The church receiv- 
ing such a letter should examine the bearer 



104 

of it as to the reasons for such neglect of 
duty, and receive or reject him on result of 
such examination. Some communions sim- 
ply certify to the membership of the bearer, 
while others, not giving letters to other 
denominations certify to membership or 
give letters to one of their own churches. 
When such letters are presented the church 
may make such examination as it pleases, 
and act on the letters favorably or unfavor- 
ably. If favorably, the bearers should be 
received on their letters. 

121. Letters to Churches not Receiv- 
ing them. If a member desire a letter to 
a church which does not receive letters 
from our churches, the letter should be 
granted, provided the church be Evangeli- 
cal (§ 122); since the letter is due the 
bearer as a worthy member, and will be a 
certificate of good character, if nothing 
more, to the church to which it is addressed. 

122. When Letters Cannot be Given. 
A letter cannot be given to a member under 
charges or on trial. Nor is it consistent 
with fealty to the Head of the Church to 
issue letters to members desiring to join 
churches which we cannot fellowship. Such 



105 

members should be labored with, reclaimed,, 
and given letters to churches held to be 
sound in faith and practice; but if such 
labors prove unavailing, they must be dealt 
with according to their deserts. 

123. Force of Church Letters. The 
bearer of a letter is a member of the 
church granting it, until he has been re- 
ceived into another church, during which 
period his letter may be recalled, and he 
brought to discipline. Nor does the accept- 
ance of a letter by another church shield 
the bearer from discipline for offenses com- 
mitted before the granting of the letter, 
and discovered after his reception on it. If 
the offense be heinous enough the church 
granting the letter can call the attention of 
the church receiving the letter to the 
offense, when the latter church can appoint 
a committee, or request the former church, 
to try the case and report its findings and 
recommendations, on which report the 
offender can be dealt with in proper cen- 
sures (§ 108). 

124. Sunday Subscriptions. Subscrip- 
tions for church building or debts or re- 
pairs, etc., are often taken on Sunday. Thejr 



106 

;are declared to be acts of charity and, 
therefore, legal by the Supreme Court of 
Michigan {Allen v. Duffie, 43 Mich. 1; where 
authorities are cited from England and sev- 
eral States). Per contra, the Supreme Court 
•of Indiana hold that "a church subscription 
made on Sunday is void, and is not made 
valid by a subsequent oral acknowledge- 
ment and promise to pay it, without con- 
sideration" {Catlett v. Trustees M. E. Church 
jf Sweetser Station, 62 Ind. 365 ; 30 Am. Repts. 
197. All authorities cited are Indiana cases). 
125. Voting Members. Children, on 
giving credible evidence of conversion, are 
wisely admitted into full communion and 
membership (§ 13); but it does not follow 
that they, while children subject to the will 
of their parents, are entitled to all church 
privileges. They should not have the right 
to vote in church meetings until of age, 
for until then they cannot cast, legally, a 
free vote. The most important interests of 
a church, as the choice or dismission of a 
pastor, the discipline of members, its pecu- 
niary matters, should not be left to the pos- 
sible decision of those who are called in 
law " infants," and whose vote may be com- 



107 

pelled by parental authority. It is the 
dictate of common sense to provide against 
such evils by rules adopted and enforced 
when no exciting issue is pending. It is 
manifest to all that money will not be freely 
contributed for church purposes, if the dis- 
posal of it and the higher welfare of the 
church be subject to the determining vote 
of minors. The bearing of this question 
on the prosperity of the churches is great. 
Formerly only adult males could vote; now 
adult women also generally enjoy the privi- 
lege; but children are excluded by usage 
and should be by rule. 

IX.— Church Worship. 

126. Each Church Regulates its own 
Worship. The worship of each congrega- 
tion of believers is subject to its own con- 
trol (§ 27) enlightened by the New Testa- 
ment. No one has the right to lay upon a 
church any other rule. In this liberty our 
churches stand; for it was purchased at a 
great cost of blood. Yet there is a general 
agreement in the forms of service adopted 
by the Congregational churches. A few 



108 

use a liturgy; many use responsive read- 
ings; each church chooses a form of worship 
best suited to its own edification. It is the 
right of the church, not of the pastor, to 
regulate its worship. 

X. — Denominational Differences. 

127. Fundamental Differences. These 
all, as respects ecclesiastical matters, are 
involved in the constitutive principles al- 
ready mentioned (§ 15). As these princi- 
ples are radical and antagonistic and 
irreconcilable, they can never be harmon- 
ized or united into one. All attempts to 
yoke any two of them in permanent co- 
operative efforts have failed, and must fail 
from the nature of the case. The Presby- 
terian, the Episcopal, and the Roman 
Catholic polities are mutually repugnant, 
as respects their constitutive principles; yet 
they agree in using authority in securing 
unity among their adherents. Unity is 
sought in the denial of liberty to the local 
congregation of believers. They severally 
deny the independence of the particular 
church, and the free, voluntary union of 



109 

churches in larger bodies. Hence they are 
more radically opposed to Congregational- 
ism than to each other. They use force in 
manifesting unity, each in its own way; 
Congregationalism uses liberty in unity, 
since each local church is autonomous, in- 
dependent. Other constitutive principles 
destroy the liberty of local churches, made 
by Christ independent of external control 
(§ 34)5 our constitutive principle establishes 
that liberty. Hence questions of church 
polity have the widest possible influence 
upon, and the closest possible relation to, 
religious and civil liberty. It concerns all 
men, whether church institutions be built 
about an Infallible Primacy, or about Apos- 
tolic Succession, or about Authoritative 
Representation, or about the Independence 
of the local church, as Christ and His 
apostles built them (§§ 30-34). 

128. Incidental Differences. These 
differences, except as modified by circum- 
stances, are normal outgrowths of the dif- 
fering constitutive principles referred to 
(§ 127); and hence they would disappear 
largely if those principles were changed. 
The following are some of the differences: 



110 

129. The Baptists. The Baptists are 
Congregationalists in polity; but, as Roy 
says: 

" Congregationalists differ from [Regular] 
Baptists with regard to baptism and church, 
communion. Baptists hold that immersion 
alone is baptism; that none but adult be- 
lievers should be baptized; and [they gen- 
erally hold] that none but immersed pro- 
fessors should be admitted to the Lord's 
Table; while Congregationalists admit the 
validity of any baptism in which water is 
applied to the person in the name of the 
Trinity; they hold that baptism [may] also 
be given to the infant children of believers; 
and they welcome to the Lord's Table all 
Evangelical Christians." 

130. The Presbyterians. Congrega- 
tionalism differs from Presbyterianism in 
this: A Congregational church manages 
its own affairs, in subordination only to 
Christ the Head; a Presbyterian church 
elects ruling elders, generally for life; these 
elders, with the pastor or pastors, consti- 
tute the session of that church; this session 
receives, dismisses, and disciplines all mem- 
bers, chooses from among its own number 



Ill 

commissioners to the Presbytery and Synod- 
the Presbytery chooses from itself commis- 
sioners to the General Assembly, each lower 
judicatory being subject to the next higher. 
Thus the General Assembly rules the Synod, 
the Synod rules the Presbytery, the Presby- 
tery rules the Session, and the Session rules 
the church. The people have no voice in 
the government, except in the choice of 
ruling elders, who are usually elected for 
We (§ 15). 

131. The Episcopal Methodists. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church is Presbyte- 
rian in polity, though its bodies are differ- 
ently named. The bishops do not consti- 
tute a separate order in the ministry; yet 
they have the power to fix the appoint- 
ments of the preachers; in the intervals of 
the Conferences, to change, receive, and 
suspend preachers, as necessity may re- 
quire, and as the discipline directs; to con- 
secrate Bishops, and ordain Elders and Dea- 
cons, etc. With Congregationalists, the 
church property is held by trustees, chosen 
by each local church, or church society, and 
is the property of that church, or church 
society; but, with the Methodists, all church. 



112 

property is held by the Conference under 
the following rule and condition, namely: 
" In future we will admit no charter, deed, 
or conveyance for any house of worship to 
be used by us, unless it be provided in 
such charter, deed, or conveyance that the 
trustees of said house shall at all times 
permit such ministers and preachers be- 
longing to the Methodist Episcopal Church 
as shall from time to time be duly author- 
ized by the General Conference of the 
ministers of our Church, or by the Annual 
Conferences, to preach and expound God's 
holy Word therein," etc. {Discipline). This 
places both the church property and the 
pulpit beyond the control of local congre- 
gations, by whose self-denials their church 
edifices have been built. A Congregational 
church controls its own pulpit and property 

(§§ iS, 2 7-34). 

132. Episcopalians. The Episcopalians 
generally hold Apostolic Succession as essen- 
tial to constitute a congregation of believers 
a true church or an ordained man a true 
minister. Church property duly conse- 
crated cannot be alienated without the con- 
sent of the Bishop of the Diocese ; and the 



113 

Bishops have jurisdiction over the clergy 

(§ 15). 

" Congregationalists differ from Episco- 
palians in ceremonies of worship, and in 
church government. The Episcopalians use 
a liturgy in worship; hold to three orders 
in the ministry, and confide the admission 
and exclusion of members to the pastor, 
and the diocesan Bishop, who is set over 
the churches and ministers of a particular 
district, and alone has power to confirm 
members and ordain ministers. Amongst 
Congregationalists, every pastor is a bishop, 
as among New Testament churches, and all 
ministers are equal in office " {Roy's Manual, 

PP. 13, 14). 

133. Congregationalists differ from the 
Roman Catholic Church and the Greek 
Church, in many points above enumerated, 
and others besides, especially the infalli- 
bility of the church. It is hardly necessary 
to specify particulars, as our system and 
these are at antipodes (§ 15). 



IT, 

ACTIVITIES OF THE PRIMITIVE, 

AND THE CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCHES. 



"Always abounding in the work of the 
Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
labor is not in vain in the Lord." — Paul. 



ACTIVITIES OF THE PRIMITIVE, 

AND THE CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCHES- 

134. The Great Commission. Our 

ascending Lord gave the final command: 
"Go ye, and make disciples of all the na- 
tions" (Matt, xxviii. 19). That this laid a 
solemn duty upon local churches as well as 
upon individual believers to evangelize the 
world, is put beyond dispute by the man- 
ner in which the first foreign missionaries 
were sent out. The teachers and prophets 
were ministering to the Lord in the church 
at Antioch, when "the Holy Ghost said, 
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work whereunto I have called them. Then, 
when they had fasted and prayed and laid 
their hands on them, they sent them away " 
(Acts xiii. 2, 3). This first call of the first 
foreign missionaries came through a church, 
and it was by church action that they were 
sent forth; and, on returning, they reported 
to the church. No church can throw off 

117 



118 

responsibility respecting home and foreign 
evangelization upon the consciences of its 
individual members. It is bound to pro- 
vide for such work by church action, in 
ordering stated collections to be taken for 
its several departments, by prayer, and by 
training laborers for the field. 

The churches, by combining their wis- 
dom, contributions, and labors, can carry 
on all missionary work at the greatest ad- 
vantage; and it should seem but the state- 
ment of a first principle, to say, that 
churches which are entrusted with the 
great duty of evangelizing the world, are 
therein authorized to manage for them- 
selves the instrumentalities necessary for 
discharging the trust. They in their inde- 
pendence are not compelled to leave the 
management of the trust to individual be- 
lievers. The churches should manage all 
their affairs; and hence all the agencies 
used should be by their own appointment, 
under their own management, that the 
churches may constantly feel the duty of 
saving sinners and evangelizing the world. 

135. Activity of the Primitive Churches. 
The primitive Christian churches confess- 



119 

edly were congregationally governed (§ 34), 
and they were full of missionary zeal and 
labor. In a few years they planted churches 
in every part of the known world; and, in a 
few centuries, in spite of terrible persecu- 
tions, paganism was overthrown wherever 
these churches had been established. Their 
form of government stimulated to every 
form of evangelistic labors by imposing, in 
a peculiar manner, upon each congregation 
the responsibility of the Master's final com- 
mission to His disciples, to preach the 
Gospel to every creature. 

136. Activities of Congregational 
Churches. The early churches of New 
England entered immediately and success- 
fully into the work of evangelizing the 
Indians, of whom they gathered many 
churches. Later, they formed the oldest 
missionary society in America, the Ameri- 
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, and they have ever been foremost 
in the formation and support of all sorts 
of benevolent and missionary enterprises. 
They have been the chief contributors to 
union societies, until, by the withdrawal of 
others, they have been left to act alone. 



120 

While limiting the exercise of authority to 
the local churches, the Congregationalists 
have embraced in their love and labors 
every philanthropic object. 

137. Co-operative Societies Recom- 
mended by the National Council. 

I. American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions. — (Org. 18 10.) — Office at 
Congregational House, Boston, Mass. 

II. American Co?igregational Union, or 
Church Building Society. — (Org. 1853.) — 
Offices at Bible House, New York City, 
and at Congregational House, Boston, Mass. 

III. American Home Missionary Society. — 
(Org. 1826.)— Office at Bible House, New 
York City. 

IV. American Missionary Association. — 
(Org. 1846.) — Office 56 Reade Street, New 
York City. 

V. Congregational Sunday School and Pub- 
lishing Society. — (Org. 1832.) — Congrega- 
tional House, Boston, Mass. 

VI. American College and Education Society. 
— (Org. 1816, 1843 — united 1874.) — Congre- 
gational House, Boston, Mass. 



121 

VII. The New West Educatio?i Commission. 
—(Org. 1879.)— Office Chicago, 111. 

VIII. (1.) The Woman s Board of Missions. 
—Org. 1868.) — [Embracing territory east of 
Ohio]. Office, Congregational House, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

(2.). Woman's Board of Missions of the In- 
terior. — [Embracing territory between the 
eastern boundary of Ohio and the Rocky 
Mountains.] — Office, Chicago, 111. 

(3.) Woman s Board of Missions of the 
Pacific. — [Embracing territory west of the 
Rocky Mountains.] — Office, San Francisco, 
Cal. * 

IX. The Woman's Home Missionary Asso- 
ciation. — (Org. 1 880.) — Office, Congrega- 
tional House, Boston, Mass. 

138. Theological Seminaries. 

I. Andover Theological Seminary, Andover, 
Mass. — (Opened 1808). 

II. Theological Seminary, Bangor, Maine. 
— (Opened 1817). 

III. Theological Department of Yale College \ 
New Haven, Conn. — (Opened 1822). 

IV. Theological Institute of Connecticut^ 
Hartford, Conn. — (Opened 1834). 



122 

V. Theological Department of Oberlin C*l- 
Jege, Oberlin, Ohio. — (Opened 1835). 

VI. Theological Seminary, Chicago, 111. — 
{Opened 1858). 

VII. Pacific Theological Seminary, Oakland, 
California. — (Opened 1869). 



Y. 

CONGREGATIONAL FORMS AND 
RULES. 



" Let all things be done decently and in 
order." — Paul 



CONGREGATIONAL FORMS, AND 
RULES OF ORDER. 



I. — Admission of Members. 

[Suggested to the churches J\ 

139. Articles of Faith. Each church 
should have a full creed, covering the com- 
mon Evangelical doctrines (§12) as its stand- 
ard of belief and teaching both in the pul- 
pit and in the Sunday school, which its 
pastor and deacons should be required to 
subscribe. This creed should be read at 
the first communion season of the year, or 
oftener, before the admission of members, 
as the faith of the church. We give the 
following as a suitable form, or the state- 
ment in Section 12 may be used: — 

ARTICLES OF FAITH. 



AETICLE I. 
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testament are the word of God, 
and the only infallible rule of faith and 
practice. 

125 



126 

ARTICLE II. 

We believe, in accordance with the teach- 
ings of Scripture, that there is one God 
subsisting in three persons, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost; eternal, un- 
changeable, and omnipresent; infinite in 
power, wisdom, and holiness; the creator 
and preserver of all things; whose purposes 
and providence extend to all events, and 
who exercises a righteous moral govern- 
ment over all His intelligent creatures. 

ARTICLE III. 

We believe that man was originally holy* 
that our first parents disobeyed the com- 
mand of God, and that in consequence of 
their apostasy all their descendants do trans- 
gress His law and come under His just con- 
demnation. 

ARTICLE IV. 

We believe that God has provided a way 
of salvation for all mankind; that the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, having taken 
upon himself our nature, has, by His volun- 
tary sufferings and death, made an atone- 
ment for sin; and that every one who, with 



127 

repentance for sin, believes in Christ, will' 
be pardoned, justified, and saved through- 
that faith alone. 

ARTICLE V. 

We believe that while salvation is thus 
freely offered to all men, none do truly 
repent and believe in Christ but those who, 
according to the sovereign grace and eter- 
nal purpose of God, are renewed and sanc- 
tified by His Holy Spirit in obeying the 
Gospel ; and that none who are thus renewed 
and chosen to eternal life will be permitted, 
so to fall away as finally to perish. 

ARTICLE VI. 

We believe that there will be a resurrec- 
tion of all the dead; and that God will 
hereafter judge all men and award to them 

eternal happiness or eternal misery. 

.ARTICLE VII. 

We believe that in this world the Lord 
Jesus Christ has a visible church, the terms 
of admission to which are a credible evi- 
dence of regeneration, baptism, and a pub- 



128 

lie profession of faith in Christ; that the 
ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
per are to be observed to the end of the 
world; that none but members of the visible 
church have a right to the Lord's Supper, 
and that such, and such only, have a right 
to dedicate their infant offspring in baptism. 



FORM OF ADMISSION. 



140. — Address. 

[Candidates on profession of faith should be 
invited to come forward and stand before the 
pulpit as their names are called, and the min- 
ister standing in the pulpit should say ;] — 
Beloved in Christ Jesus : — This Church be- 
lieves in the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel 
of the Son of God unto which those born 
from above attain as they grow in the 
grace and knowledge of our Lord and 
Savior Jesus Christ. But it requires as a 
test of admission to its fellowship, evidence 
of repentance toward God, and faith in our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and a profession of be- 
lief in those plain facts of the Gospel, in 



129 

which all, throughout the world, who fol- 
low Christ, can unite. 

Having given to this church satisfactory 
evidence that you are Christ's, we welcome 
you to our membership in the affirmation 
of the faith of the Christian Church, which, 
with us, you now profess. 

141. Creed. 

We believe in God — the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost; we believe in His 
creative pwwer, His perfect providence, His 
infinite dominion, and His everlasting love. 

We confess Jesus Christ, His only Son, 
God manifest in the flesh, our Lord and 
Savior, through whom alone is the forgive- 
ness of sins: who was crucified for us; who 
ascended into heaven; who reigneth in the 
glory of the Father. 

We confess the Holy Ghost — the sancti- 
fier, by whom alone is wrought the renewal 
of the heart: who leadeth to repentance; 
who worketh love; who giveth the new life 
of faith in the Son of God. 

We believe in the Holy Scriptures — the 
word of God. 
10 



130 

We confess one holy and universal Church 
of Christ, in whom the whole family in 
heaven and earth is named. 

We acknowledge one baptism after His 
command; and the communion in His body 
and blood in remembrance of Him. 

We look for the glorious coming of the 
Lord; the resurrection of the dead; and 
the general judgment; when the wicked 
shall go away into eternal punishment, but 
the righteous into eternal life. — Amen. 
\Or the following creed may be used, the most 

ancient and universal of creeds .-] 

The Apostles' Creed. 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, 
maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus 
Christ His only Son our Lord; who was 
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the 
Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, dead and buried; He de* 
scended into Hades; the third day He rose 
from the dead; He ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God the 
Father Almighty; from thence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. I 



131 

believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catho- 
lic Church; the communion of saints; the 
forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the 
body; and the life everlasting. Amen. 

[If a fuller creed be desired use that in Sec- 
tion 139.1 

Baptism. 

[The minister here administers baptism, either 

by sprinkling, pouring, or Immersion, as may 

be preferred, to such as have not been baptized. 

After which, those who have been baptized In 

infancy may be addressed as follows :] 

Having been baptized in your infancy, 

on the faith of those who were privileged 

to enter into covenant with God for you. 

do you now own your baptism, and by your 

voluntary act renew your consecration to 

God? 

142. Covenant. 

In addition to the expression of your 
Christian belief, and as evidence that the 
truth dwelleth in you, you further avow, 
before these witnesses, the spiritual cove- 
nant which you have made with God, and 
also here enter into a special covenant with 
His people. 



132 

You humbly declare that you have re- 
pented of your sinful life, and are at peace 
with Him through faith in H is Son, and 
that, depending upon the aid of His Spirit, 
you propose to spend your remaining days 
in devotion to His will and preparation for 
His presence. You promise to promote, 
according to the ability which He may give 
you, the establishment of His kingdom in 
the world; to observe His ordinances, and 
to walk worthy of your calling by a life of 
piety and benevolence. 

In uniting with this church you engage 
to comply with its rules, submit to its dis- 
cipline, attend, so far as practicable, its 
appointed meetings, guard its purity, and, 
abiding in cordial fellowship with its mem- 
bers, co-operate with them for the advance- 
ment of its prosperity. 

Do you thus solemnly engage ? 
[ lVke7t any are received by letter ; the following 
form may be used ; such persons, as their 
namesare called, either rising and standing in 
their places, or coming forward and standing 
before the pulpit, as the church may prefer ;] 
You have already, in former connections, 
avowed your faith in the cardinal doctrines 



133 

of the Gospel, and professed your union 
with the great Head of the Church. Hav- 
ing closed your special relation to other 
organizations, and presented to us letters 
which we accredit as an honorable dismis- 
sion from them, you are about to assume 
similar obligations and enter into like en- 
gagements with us. Do you promise to 
sustain and submit to the fraternal dis- 
cipline of this church; to promote its order, 
piety, and harmony; to assist in the main- 
tenance of its ordinances; and to endeavor 
to fulfil all the duties which maybe incum- 
bent on you in our communion ? 

[ The church will rise.] 

Relying upon these your professions and 
engagements, and trusting in the grace of 
God to keep you faithful, we receive you to 
membership in this church, and, in the 
name of its blessed Lord, we welcome you 
to its privileges and cares. We give thanks 
to God, who has inclined you to fear His 
name; and we promise, on our part, to 
treat you with Christian regard; to aid you 
in your spiritual life and work, and to join 



134 

you in prayers for our mutual edification 
and salvation. 

[The church remaining standing, the pastor may 
give each new ??ie7nber the right hand of fel- 
Io7e>ship. After which he pronoujices the fol- 
lowing benediction ;] 

Benediction. 

May the God of peace, who brought 
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Great Shepherd of the sheep, through 
the blood of the everlasting covenant, make 
you perfect in every good work, working in 
you that which is well pleasing in His sight. 

Now unto Him who is able to keep us 
from falling, and to present us faultless 
before the presence of His glory with ex- 
ceeding joy, to the only wise God, our 
Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and 
power, both now and forever. Amen! 

[ The church or choir may here sing the Aaronic 
Benediction. 

The Lord bless you, and keep you! The 
Lord make His face to shine upon you, and 
be gracious unto you! The Lord lift up 



135 

His countenance upon you, and give you 
peace! 

Amen and Amen! 



II. — Standing Rules of a Church. 

143. 1. All meetings for business shall be 
opened with prayer. 

2. The annual meetings of the church 
shall be held on the day of 

3. A special meeting may be called at 
any time when in the opinion of the pastor 
and deacons it shall be expedient; and shall 
be called at any time upon the written ap- 
plication of five adult members of the 
church. 

4. The following officers shall be elected 
for the ensuing year, at the annual meeting: 

a. A Clerk, who shall keep the records 
of the church. 

b. A Church Board, of which the pastor 
and deacons shall constitute a part, who 
shall meet at times appointed by itself, 
to examine all applicants for admission to 
the church, and present a report of the 
names of such as they shall approve of the 
church. 

This Board shall also act as a Committee 
of Inquiry and Discipline; and shall at such 
times as may be deemed desirable make a 
report to the church of their doings. 



136 

c. A Treasurer, who shall take charge cf 
all moneys belonging to the church, and of 
all collections for church and charitable 
objects, and shall pay out the same as 
directed by the church. 

d. A Board of Trustees shall be chosen, 
to hold and manage the church property as 
directed by the church under the laws of 
the State. 

5. All officers and standing committees 
shall be chosen by ballot. 

6. The Order of Business at the annual 
meeting shall be, viz: 1. Prayer. 2. Read- 
ing records of last annual meeting, with 
action thereon by members present. 3. 
Choice of Clerk. 4. Report of Treasurer 
and action thereon as aforesaid. 5. Choice 
of Treasurer. 6. Report of Church Board 
and action thereon. 7. Choice of Church 
Board. 8. Deferred business. 9. New 
business. 

7. Candidates for admission to the church, 
whether by letter or on profession of faith, 
shall make application to the Church Board 
at least one week before the day of Pre- 
paratory Lecture. If recommended by 
them, the name of each candidate shall be 
read at the regular church service on the 
Sabbath preceding the communion season, 
and the church shall vote upon their appli- 
cation at Preparatory Lecture. If received 
by such vote, candidates shall present them- 



137 

selves for public admission in connection 
with the communion service following. 

8. The Lord's Supper shall be observed 
on the first Sunday of 

9. There shall be a meeting of the church 

and congregation on evening of each 

week, for devotional and religious confer- 
ence, and for the transaction of business 
that may regularly come before the church; 
and at a specified time during the week, 
immediately preceding the Sunday of com- 
munion, a meeting shall be especially de- 
voted to preparation for the proper recep- 
tion of that ordinance. 

10. The necessary expenses of all delega- 
tions to ecclesiastical bodies shall be paid 
by the Treasurer from the funds of the 
church. 

1 1. Delegates to ecclesiastical bodies shall 
make a report of their doings at the weekly 
meeting next succeeding their return. 

12. Members of the church removing 
their place of worship shall be expected to 
obtain dismission from this, and a recom- 
mendation to the church with which they 
worship, within one year from the time of 
such change, unless reasonable excuse be 
rendered for neglect. 

13. Members who have been habitually 
absent from the worship and ordinances of 
this church for one year, shall not vote in 
the meetings -of the church so long as such 
habitual absence continues. Nor shall/ 



138 

minors have a vote in church meetings 

(§ 125). 

14. The Church Board, at their first meet- 
ing after each communion, shall examine 
the entries made in the church records 
since the communion preceding, and if 
found correct, approve them. The records 
shall also be read and approved by the 
church. 

Administration of Discipline. 

15. Habitual neglect of public worsnip, 
and all common offenses against religion 
and morality (§ 103), shall be presented for 
action to the church by the Church Board. 

Procedure. 

(1.) The brother offended or aggrieved 
should seek the removal of the offense in 
the spirit of the Gospel, by fraternal con- 
ference with the offender alone. 

(2.) If the difficulty be not thus removed, 
the offended should take with him one or 
two judicious brethren, and with their me- 
diation strive for Christian satisfaction. 

(3.) This failing, he should bring the 
matter to the notice of the Church Board, 
who shall endeavor to bring about a recon- 
ciliation, and who (if this cannot be effected), 
shall prefer a formal complaint before the 
church against the offending brother. 



139 

(4.) If the church entertain the complaint, 
they shall appoint a time for a hearing of 
the case, and summon the. offender to be 
present at the hearing, furnishing him, at 
least one week before the time of the hear- 
ing, with a copy of the charges against him, 
together with the names of the witnesses 
relied on for proof. 

(5.) If the church so elect, the case may 
be referred to the Church Board, or to a 
special committee, for trial. In this case 
the Board or committee hear and record for 
substance the evidence, and recommend the 
censures, if any, to be inflicted; and re- 
port evidence and recommendations to the 
church for final action (§ 108). The church 
may vote to admonish the condemned pub- 
licly, to suspend him for some definite 
period from the privileges of the church, 
or to excommunicate him from its member- 
ship, according to the aggravation of the 
offense. 

(6.) A vote of censure shall require the 
concurrence of two-thirds of the members 
attending a regular meeting. 

(7.) In case of excommunication of any 
member, notice of the fact shall be given 
to the church at the following communion 
season. 

Change in Rules. 

16. No alteration shall be made in prin- 
ciples and rules, unless at a regular meeting 



140 

of the church, it having been proposed at 
least one month previous to action thereon, 
and by vote of three-fourths of the mem- 
bers present. 



III. — Church Letters. 

144. 1. Of Dismission. 

This certifies that is a member 

in good and regular standing of 

Church of . As such is at 

own request, hereby dismissed, and 

affectionately recommended to the fellow- 
ship and care of the Church of 

, and, when received by it, 

membership with this church will cease. 
By vote of the church, 

, Clerk. 



A. D. i* 



(Please inform this church as soon as the 
bearer of this letter has been received to 
membership.) 

145. 2. Letter of Introduction. 

To whom it may concern : 
This may certify that the bearer, 



is a member in good and regular standing 

of the Congregational Church in — . 

Expecting to be absent from us for some 



141 

time, and desiring Christian intercourse 
during absence, is hereby affec- 
tionately commended to the occasional 
communion and fellowship of any Church 
of Christ with which , in the provi- 
dence of God, may desire to worship. 

, Pastor (or Clerk) 



(Date.) 



146. 3. Complaint Against an Offender. 

To the Congregational Church in 

Dear Brethren: It becomes our Chris- 
tian duty to bring to your notice the offense 
of a member, and to ask you to deal with 
it according to the law of Christ. 

We charge with being guilty of the 

sin of -; and particularly on the 

day of , 18 — (and at other 

specified times, if any), and of denying the 
same (or remaining obdurate in regard to 
the same); in violation of his duty as a 
Christian, and of his covenant vows. 

The witnesses thereof are 

We respectfully ask you to entertain this 
charge, and to try the party accused, ac- 
cording to the law of Christ. 

Yours in Christ Jesus, 

(Date.) 



142 

IV. — Letters Missive Calling a Council. 

147. 1. To Organize a Church. 

To the Congregational Church in 

Dear Brethren: The Great Head of 
the Church having inclined a number of 
believers here to think that it is our duty 
to become associated as a Congregational 
Church, and having taken the preliminary- 
steps toward it, we respectfully request you, 
by your pastor and a delegate, to meet in 

council , in this place on the 

of , at — o'clock , 

to consider the expediency of our action, 
and advise us in reference thereto, and, if 
thought best, recognize such organization 
by public and appropriate exercises. 

Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, we 
subscribe ourselves 

Your brethren in Christ, 

{Here insert names of committee of those pro- 
posing to unite, also the names of the 
churches invite d\ 

148. 2. To Ordain or Recognize or In-* 

stall a Minister. 

The Congregational Church in to the 

Congregational Church in , sendeth 

greeting : 

Beloved Brethren: The Great Head 
of the Church has kindly united us, and 



143 

the congregation statedly worshipping with 
us, in the choice of Mr. (Rev.) A B as our 
pastor and teacher, and he has accepted our 
invitation to that office. We therefore affec- 
tionately request your attendance, by pastor 

and delegate, at , on the 

day of next, at o'clock 

, to examine the candidate, and 

advise us in reference to the same; and, if 
judged expedient, to assist in the ordina- 
tion (recognition or installation) exercises. 
Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, 
We are fraternally yours, 
{Here itisert names of committee of the church, 
also the names of the churches invited^) 

[This form may be altered and used for 
the ordination of one to the ministry, but 
not as a pastor. 



149. 3. To Dismiss a Pastor. 

The Congregational Church in to the 

Congregational Church in , sendeth 

greeting : 
Dear Brethren: Whereas our pastor 
has resigned, and the church has accepted 
(or declined to accept) his resignation (or, 
whereas, unhappily, a state of things exists 
among us, which, in the judgment of the 
pastor or a majority of this church, renders 
it expedient that a council should be called 



144 

to advise in the matter), we affectionately 
invite your attendance, by pastor and dele- 
gate, at, on the day of 

, at o'clock in the , 

to examine the facts and advise us in the 
premises. 

Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, 
We are yours in the Gospel, 



Committee. 



(Date. 



{Here insert the names of churches and persons 
invite d\ 



150. 4. To Discipline a Minister. 

The Congregational Church in to the 

Congregational Church in , sendeth 

greeting : 

Dear Brethren: Whereas, Rev. , 

having committed things worthy of discip- 
line (or having lapsed from the faith), re- 
mains obdurate under our attempts to re- 
claim him, we most urgently invite you, by 
pastor and delegate, to sit in council on the 

day of , at o'clock in 

the , in the , to hear the charges 

against him, and to take such action on the 



145 

case as the facts and the usages of our 
churches warrant. 

Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace. 
We are fraternally yours, 

[• Committee. 

(Date.) 

, [Minister. 

{Hire insert the names of churches and persons 
invited.) 



151. Order of Procedure in Council. 

Good order requires proper organization 
and procedure, that the best interests of all 
parties concerned may be secured. The 
following order of procedure may be ob- 
served : — 

(1.) Reading of letter missive, usually by 
the oldest pastor present. 

(2.) Election of temporary moderator and 
scribe. 

(3.) Making Roll of council. 

(4.) Election by ballot of permanent 
moderator and scribe, provided a quorum 
be present; if a quorum be not present, 
adjournment to a fixed time and place (§44). 



146 

(S-) Devotional exercises. 

(6.) Reading records of action of parties 
touching the calling of the council. 

(7.) The business specified in the letter 
missive. 

If it be the ordination, installation, or 
recognition of a minister, then: — 

(8.) The candidate's certificate of church 
membership, his licensure or credentials of 
ministerial standing, and, in case of recog- 
nition or installation, his call and accept- 
ance to the pastorate. If these are found 
satisfactory, then; — 

(9.) The examination of the candidate in 
beliefs, Christian experience, and fitness. 

(10.) The council vote to be by them- 
selves for action upon the examination, and 
the advice to be given. If the council 
advise the church to proceed, a committee 
is appointed to arrange with the church 
and candidate the parts in the public ser- 
vices. 

(11.) Announcement to the church of the 
action of the council. 

(12.) Reading and approval of the min- 
utes. 

(13.) Order of oublic services. 



147 

a. Reading of Minutes. 
3. Introductory Prayer. 

c. Scriptural Lesson. 

d. Sermon. 

e. Prayer of Ordination, Recognition, or 
Installation. 

f. Right Hand of Fellowship. 

g. Charge to the Minister. 

h. Address to the People (omitted, except 
in cases of pastors, and sometimes then). 
i. Benediction. 
[Hymns interspersed as desired.] 



VI. — Parliamentary Rules. 

152. Rules of Order a Common Law. 

In the transaction of business in any society 
it has been found expedient to observe cer- 
tain rules of procedure, whether those rules 
have been adopted by the body or not. 
The most important of these rules have 
become the common law which every body 
recognizes as binding. Besides these gen- 
eral rules special ones are oiten adopted. 
The general rules are sufficient for ordinary 
ecclesiastical meetings. 



148 

153- To Bring Business before the 
Body. When one wishes to introduce any 
business before a church, council, Associa- 
tion, or other body, he rises in his place and 
addresses the presiding officer by his proper 
title, and then waits until he be recognized 
by the presiding officer. When thus recog- 
nized, he has the floor, and can introduce 
the business by making a motion covering 
it, or by a communication. No one can 
interrupt him, or take the floor from him, 
until he yields it or forfeits his right to it. 

The motion must be seconded or it can- 
not be entertained. The mover of the mo- 
tion cannot himself second it, nor can his 
announcement that another will second it, 
be sufficient. Another must give his sup- 
port to the motion with his own voice. 

The communication, when a paper or a 
report, may at once be read unless objec- 
tion be made, in which case the chairman 
puts the question: "Will the assembly hear 
the communication?" or "Will the assem- 
bly receive the report ?" If the vote be in 
the affirmative, the report or paper, whether 
read or not, is before the house and must 
be disposed of in some way by the assembly. 



149 

A committee, unless a standing com- 
mittee, ceases to exist, the moment the as- 
sembly receives its report, if not a report 
of progress, whether the report be read or 
not; and the committee cannot act again 
unless revived by the recommittal of its 
report, or by special vote (Robert's Rules, 
§S 28, 30; Cushing's Manual, £ 293). 

154. To Dispose of Business before 
the Body. A communication may be re- 
ferred to a committee, laid on the table, 
postponed to a fixed time for consideration, 
postponed indefinitely, or adopted as ex- 
pressing the sense of the body. 

A report may be recommitted, referred 
to another committee, laid on the table, 
postponed to a fixed time, postponed in- 
definitely, or adopted, accepted, or agreed 
to. The adoption, or acceptance of, or 
agreeing to, a report has the same effect 
precisely, namely, to make the doings of 
the committee the acts of the assembly, the 
same as if done by the assembly. The word 
"accept" is often used in ecclesiastical 
bodies in the sense of " receive," to bring 
a report already read before the body for 
action, and not to dispose of it. But a re- 



150 

port whether read or not, if laid before the 
body by the committee without objection is 
received (§ 153), and is as much before the 
assembly and its property, as it can be 
without adoption. Hence this ecclesiasti- 
cal use of the word " accept " is of no use, 
and should be avoided.* 

When a motion has been made and sec- 
onded, certain things may be done to it, 
and certain things may not be done to it; 
and it is of the greatest importance to good 
order and prompt dispatch of business, 
that each member of a body know what 
can and what cannot be done to a motion 

* Whenever a report or paper has been 
read or formally placed before the body, it 
has been received. It is before the body, 
and must be disposed of in some way. 
The body can at once adopt it, or do what 
it pleases with it. To accept is to adopt: — 
"When the assembly is to consider a re- 
port, a motion should be made to ' adopt,' 
* accept,' or 'agree to' the report, all of 
which, when carried, have the same effect, 
namely, to make the doings of the commit- 
tee to become the acts of the assembly " 
(Robert's Rules, § 31). "When accepted, 
the whole report is adopted by the assem- 
bly" (Cushing's Manual, § 295). 



151 

before the assembly. Hence we add tables 
taken from Robert's Rules of Order, to 
which work we must refer for a fuller treat- 
ment of the points raised. 

155. Motions Amendable. The main 
question or motion may be amended: 

(1.) By addi?tg or inserting certain words or 
paragraphs ; 

(2.) By striking out certain words or para- 
graphs; 

(3.) By striking out certain words and insert- 
ing others; 

(4.) By substituting another motion on the 
same subject for the one pending; 

(5.) By dividing the question into two or more 
questions, as the mover specifies. 

An amendment may be inconsistent with 
one already adopted, or may directly con- 
flict with the spirit of the original motion, 
but it must have a direct bearing upon the 
subject of that motion. 

156. Motions Unamendable. The fol- 
lowing motions cannot be amended: 

(1.) To adjourn (when unqualified). 
(2.) For the orders of the day. 
(3.) All incidental questions. 



152 

(4.) To lie on the table. 

(5.) For the previous question. 

(6.) An amendment of an amendment. 

(7.) To postpone indefinite ly% 

(8.) To reconsider a vote. 

157. Undebatable Questions, The fol- 
lowing questions must be decided without 
debate, all others being debatable: 

(1.) To fix the time to which the assembly 
shall adjourn, if made when another ques- 
tion is before the body. As the main ques- 
tion, it is amendable and debatable. 

(2.) To adjourn. 

(3.) Call for the orders of the day. 

(4.) An appeal, when made while the pre- 
vious question is pending, or when simply 
relating to decorum or transgressions of the 
rules of speaking, or to the priority of 
business. 

(5.) Objection to the consideration of a ques- 
tion. 

(6.) Questions relating to 

a. Reading of papers; 

b. Withdrawing a motion; 

c. Suspending the rules; 

d. Extending limits of debate; 



153 

e. Limiting or closiug debate; 

f. Granting leave to continue his speech to 
one who has been guilty of indecorum in 
debate. 

(7.) To lie on the table. 
(3.) To take from the table. 
(9.) The previous question. 
(10.) To reconsider a question which is itself 
undebatable; otherwise it is debatable. 

158. Subsidiary Motions. A motion 
made to bring" any particular subject before 
the assembly for its consideration is the 
principal or main question. The assembly 
may not wish to act immediately on that 
motion but dispose of it in some other way, 
or it may wish to terminate debate. To 
accomplish its wish, the assembly may 
pass any one of the following motions, 
which yield to Privileged and Incidental 
Questions (§§ 159, 160), and which are ar- 
ranged in their order of precedence among 
themselves: 

(1.) Lie on the table. 

(2.) The previous question. 
_ (3.) Postpone to a certain day. 

(4.) Commit. 



154 

'(5.) Amena. 

(6.) Postpone indefinitely. 

"Any one of these motions (except 
amend) can be made when one of a lower 
order is pending, but none can supersede 
one of a higher order. They cannot be 
applied to one another except in the follow- 
ing cases: (a.) The Previous Question ap- 
plies to the motion to Postpone, without 
affecting the principal motion, and can, if 
specified, be applied to a pending amend- 
ment; (/>.) the motions to Postpone to a 
certain day, and to Commit, can be amended ; 
.and (V.) a motion to Amend the minutes can 
be laid on the table." 

The effect of a motion to "lie on the 
table," if carried, places on the table every- 
thing that adheres to the subject; so that if 
an amendment be ordered to lie on the 
table, the subject which it is proposed to 
amend, goes there with it. The following 
cases are exceptions: (a.) An appeal; (l\) 
A motion to reconsider; (r.) An amend- 
ment to the minutes of the body. These 
can be ordered to lie on the table without 
carrying the original subjects with them. 






155 

159. Incidental Questions, These are 
such as arise out of other questions, and, 
consequently, take precedence of, and are 
to be decided before, the questions which 
give rise to them. They yield to Privileged 
Questions, and cannot be amended. 

(1.) Appeal (or questions of order). 
(2.) Objection to the consideration of a ques- 
tion. 

(3.) TJie reading of papers. 
(4.) Leave to withdraw a motion. 
(5.) Suspension of the rules. 

160. Privileged Questions, These, on 
account of their importance, take preced- 
ence over all other questions whatever. 
They are as follows: 

(1.) To fix the time to which the assembly 
'hall adjourn. 

(2.) Adjourn. 

(3.) Questions relating to the rights and privi- 
leges of the assembly or any of its members. 

(4.) Call for the orders of the day. 



161. Motions Requiring more than a 
Majority Vote. The following motions 
require a two-thirds vote for their adop- 
tion, as the right of discussion, and the 



156 

right to have the rules enforced, should not 
be abridged by a majority: 

(i.) An objection to the consideration of a 
question, 

(2.) To take up a question out of its proper 
order. 

(3.) To suspend the rules. 

(4.) The previous question. 

(5.) To close or limit debate. 

(6.) To amend the rules {requiring previous 
notice also). 

(7.) To make a special order. 



YI. 

NATIONAL CONGREGATIONAL 
BODIES. 






" That they may all be one * * * * 
that the world may believe that thou didst 
send me." — Prayer of Jesus Christ. 



NATIONAL CONGREGATIONAL 
BODIES. 

162. National Synods. Until 187 1 there 
were no stated but only occasional national 
gatherings of the Congregational churches 
in this country. Their first " Synod " was 
held in 1637, at Newtown, now Cambridge, 
Mass. The second "Synod," of a general 
nature, was convened at Cambridge, 1646- 
1648. It gave us the Cambridge Platform 
of Church Discipline. 

The next was a " Convention " held at 
Albany, N. Y., in 1852. The fourth was 
the "Council" held in Boston, Mass., in 
1865, which gave us the Boston Platform of 
Church Discipline. These gatherings were 
not frequent enough, either to express our 
unity or to secure organic efficiency. 

163. The National Council. The Con- 
gregational churches met at Oberlin, in 
187 1, and organized themselves into a Na- 
tional Council, meeting every third year 
thereafter. The following are the Constitu- 
tion, By-Laws, and Rules of Order of this 
Council. 

159 



160 
164. Constitution 

OF 1HE 

NATIONAL COUNCIL, ADOPTED IN OBERLIN, 0., 
NOVEMBEE, 17, 1871. 

The Congregational churches of the 
United States, by elders and messengers 
assembled, do now associate themselves in 
National Council: 

To express and foster their substantial 
unity in doctrine, polity, and work; and 

To consult upon the common interests of 
all the churches, their duties in the work of 
evangelization, the united development of 
their resources, and their relations to all 
parts of the kingdom of Christ. 

They agree in belief that the Holy Scrip- 
tures are the sufficient and only infallible 
rule of religious faith and practice; their 
interpretation thereof being in substantial 
accordance with the great doctrines of the 
Christian faith, commonly called Evangeli- 
cal, held in our churches from the early 
times, and sufficiently set forth by former 
General Councils. 

They agree in belief that the right of 
government resides in local churches, or 
congregations of believers, who are respon- 



161 

sible directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
One Head of the church universal and of 
all particular churches ; but that all churches, 
being in communion one with another as 
parts of Christ's catholic church, have 
mutual duties subsisting in the obligations 
of fellowship. 

The churches, therefore, while establish- 
ing this National Council for the further- 
ance of the common interests and work of 
all the churches, do maintain the Scriptural 
and inalienable right of each church to self- 
government and administration; and this 
National Council shall never exercise legis- 
lative or judicial authority, nor consent to 
act as a council of reference. 

And for the convenience of orderly con- 
sultation, they establish the following Rules: 

I. Sessions. — The churches will meet in 
National Council every third year. They 
shall also be convened in special session 
whenever any five of the general State or- 
ganizations shall so request. 

II. Representation. — The churches shall be 

represented at each session, by delegates, 

either ministers or laymen, appointed in 

number and manner as follows: 
12 



162 

i. The churches, assembled in their local 
organizations, appoint one delegate for 
every ten churches in their respective or- 
ganizations, and one for a fraction of ten 
greater than one half, it being understood 
that wherever the churches of any State are 
directly united in a general organization, 
they may,- at their option, appoint the dele- 
gates in such a body, instead of in local 
organizations, but in the above ratio of 
churches so united. 

2. In addition to the above, the churches 
united in State organization appoint by 
such body one delegate, and one for each 
ten thousand communicants in their fellow- 
ship, and one for a major fraction thereof: — 

3. It being recommended that the num- 
ber of delegates be, in all cases, divided be- 
tween ministers and laymen, as nearly 
equally as is practicable. 

4. Such Congregational general societies 
for Christian work, and the faculties of 
such theological seminaries, as may be 
recognized by this Council, may be repre- 
sented by one delegate each, such repre- 
sentatives having the right of discussion 
only. 



163 

III. Officers, — i. At the beginning of every 
stated or special session, there shall be 
chosen by ballot, from those present as 
members, a moderator, and one or more 
assistant moderators, to preside over its 
deliberations. 

2. At each triennial session, there shall 
be chosen by ballot a secretary, a registrar, 
and a treasurer, to serve from the close of 
such session to the close of the next trien- 
nial session. 

3. The secretary shall receive communi- 
cations for the Council, conduct correspond- 
ence, and collect such facts, and superin- 
tend such publications, as may from time 
to time be ordered. 

4. The registrar shall make and preserve 
the records of the proceedings of the Coun- 
cil; and for his aid, one or more assistants 
shall be chosen at each session, to serve 
during such session. 

5. The treasurer shall do the work or- 
dinarily belonging to such office. 

6. At each triennial session, there shaU 
be chosen a provisional committee, who 
shall make needful arrangements for the 



164 

next triennial session, and for any session 
called during the interval. 

7. Committees shall be appointed, and in 
such manner, as may from time to time be 
ordered. 

8. Any member of a church in fellowship 
may be chosen to the office of secretary, 
registrar, or treasurer; and such officers as 
are not delegates shall have the privileges 
of members, except that of voting. 

IV. By-Laws. — The Council may make 
and alter By-laws at any triennial session. 

V. Amendments. — This constitution shall 
not be altered or amended except at a trien- 
nial session, and by a two-thirds vote, notice 
thereof having been given at a previous 
triennial session, or the proposed alteration 
having been requested by some general 
State organization of churches, and pub- 
lished with the notification of the session. 

165. By-Laws. 

I. In all its official acts and records, this 
body shall be designated as The National 
Council of the Congregational Churches 
of the United States. 



165 

II. It shall be understood that the term 
for which delegates to the Council are ap- 
pointed expires with each session, triennial 
or special, to which they are chosen. 

III. Statistical Secretaries of State and 
Territorial bodies, Ministers serving the 
churches entertaining the Council, and per- 
sons selected as preachers, or to prepare 
papers, or to serve upon committees chosen 
by this body, shall be entitled to seats in 
the session in which they are to serve, 
without the privilege of voting. 

IV. The term "Congregational," as ap- 
plied to the general benevolent societies, in 
connection with representation in this body, 
is understood in the broad sense of societies 
whose constituency and control are sub- 
stantially Congregational. 

V. The Provisional Committee shall con- 
sist of seven persons chosen by the Council, 
with the addition of the Secretary, Regis- 
trar, and Treasurer, ex-offiao, of whom four 
shall be a quorum. This committee shall 
specify the place, and the precise time, 
at which sessions shall commence; shall 
choose a preacher of the opening sermon; 
may select topics regarding the Christian 
work of the churches, and persons to pre- 
pare and present papers thereon; shall do 
any work which shall have been referred to 
them by the Council; shall name a place 
and time for the next triennial session; and 
shall make a full report of all their doings, — 



166 

the consideration of which shall be first in 
order of business after organization. 

VI. The sessions shall ordinarily be held 
in the latter part of October, or the early- 
part of November. 

VII. The call for any session shall be 
signed by the chairman of the Provisional 
Committee and the Secretary of the Coun- 
cil, and it shall contain a list of topics pro- 
posed by the committee; and the Secretary 
shall seasonably furnish blank credentials, 
and other needful papers, to the scribes of 
the several local organizations of churches. 

VIII. Soon after the opening of a stated 
or special session, the following committees 
shall be appointed: 

i. A Committee on Credentials, who shall 
prepare a roll of members. 

2. A Committee of Nominations, to make 
all nominations not otherwise provided for. 

3. A Business Committee, to propose a 
docket for the use of the members. Except 
by special vote of the Council, no business 
shall be introduced which has not thus 
passed through the hands of this committee. 

4. A Publishing Committee of five, in- 
cluding the Secretary, the Registrar, and 
the Treasurer, who shall contract for and 
distribute all publications ordered by the 
Council. 

5. A Finance Committee. 

6. A Committee on each of the national 
Congregational charitable societies, to 



167 

which, severally, may be referred any state- 
ments from, and any communications relat- 
ing to, said societies. 

7. A Committee on the Congregational 
theological seminaries, to which may be 
referred any statements from, and any com- 
munications relating to, said seminaries. 

Committees shall be composed of three 
persons each, except otherwise ordered. 

IX. In the sessions of the National Coun- 
cil, half an hour shall every morning be 
given to devotional services, and the daily 
sessions shall be opened with prayer, and 
closed with prayer or singing. Every 
evening shall ordinarily be given to meet- 
ings of a specifically religious, rather than 
business, character. And the Council will 
join in the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per at some convenient season. The after- 
noon and evening of Saturday, and the 
evening of the Sabbath, shall be assigned to 
hearing from such "Congregational Socie- 
ties as may be recognized by this Council," 
the time to be equitably divided between 
them; and no other portion of the time of 
the Council is to be occupied by them. 

X. No person shall occupy more than one 
hour in reading any paper or report, with- 
out the unanimous consent of the Council. 

XI. An Auditor of Accounts shall be ap- 
pointed at every session. 

XII. The Provisional Committee may fill 
any vacancies occurring in any committee 



168 

or office in the intervals of sessions, — the 
person so appointed to serve until the next 
session. 

XIII. The Council approves of an annual 
compilation of the statistics of the churches, 
and of a list of such ministers as are re- 
ported by the several State organizations. 
And the Secretary is directed to present at 
each triennial session, comprehensive and 
comparative summaries for the three years 
preceding. 

XIV. The Council will welcome corres- 
pondence by interchange of delegates, with 
the general Congregational bodies of other 
lands, and with the general ecclesiastical 
organizations of other churches of Evan- 
gelical faith in our land. Delegates will be 
appointed by the Council in the years of 
its session, and by the Provisional Commit- 
tee in the intervening years. 



166. Rules of Order Adopted by the 
National Council. 

i. The rules of order shall be those found 
in common parliamentary use, not modified 
by local legislative practice, with the fol- 
lowing explicit modifications: 

(a) When a question is under debate, no 
motion shall be received, except the follow- 
ing, namely: To amend, to commit, to post- 



169 

pone to a certain time, to postpone indefi- 
nitely, to lay on the table, and to adjourn, — 
which shall have precedence in the reverse 
order of this list, — the motions to lay on the 
table and to adjourn, alone being not de- 
batable. 

(b) If the report of a committee contains 
nothing more than matters of fact for in- 
formation, or matters of argument for the 
consideration of the Council, the question 
is, Shall the report be accepted?—- and that 
question, unless superseded by a motion to 
reject, to recommit, to postpone, or to lay 
upon the table, shall be taken without de- 
bate. Such a report, if accepted, is placed 
upon the files of the Council, but not being 
an act of the Council, is not entered on the 
minutes. 

(c) If the report is in the form of a vote, 
or resolution, or of a declaration, expressing 
the judgment or testimony of the Council, 
the additional question arises, Shall the report 
be adopted? — and motions for amendment 
are in order. Such a report, if adopted, 
with or without amendment, is the act of 
the Council, and is entered on the minutes. 

(d) If a report gives the views of the com- 
mittee on the matter referred to them, and 
terminates with the form of a resolution or 
declaration in the name of the Council, the 
questions are, — Shall the report be accepted? 
and, Shall the resolution, or declaration, be 
adopted? And, while the report at large, 



170 

if accepted, is placed on file, that part of it 
which has become the act of the Council is 
entered on the minutes. 

2. No member shall speak more than 
twice to the merits of any question in de- 
bate, except by special permission of the 
body; nor more than once until every mem- 
ber desiring to speak shall have spoken. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 

[The following Section should have been placed between 
Sections 58 and 5#]. 

167. How to Form Church Associa- 
tions. Associations of churches may be 

formed in the following way: 

a. When it is desired to organize a Dis- 
trict Association (§58 a.), let some church 
appoint a committee to correspond with the 
other churches in reference thereto; and, 
in case they are favorably disposed, to in- 
vite them to meet by pastors and delegates 
in convention for the purpose of constitu- 
ting themselves into an Association. When 
they in convention shall have adopted a 
Constitution, Doctrinal Basis, and By-laws, 
the said churches become an Association. 

b. When it is desired to organize a State 
or Territorial Association (§ 58, b.), some 
District Association, or, in case there be 
none, some church, may appoint a commit- 
tee of correspondence and invitation, as 
above, to call a convention of the churches 

173 



174 

by pastors and delegates, for constituting 
the Association. 

c. In either case, great care should be 
had in adopting the Constitution, Doctrinal 
Basis, and By-laws, as they form the or- 
ganic law of the body. A committee ap- 
pointed for the purpose should derive 
needed help from the action of other co-or- 
dinate bodies in this respect, whose Consti- 
tutions, Doctrinal Bases, and By-laws have 
been published. 



175 

168. 

[We append a service for administering 
Infant Baptism, though not so related to 
Polity as to require it, but yet so needed as 
to justify its insertion. For the limitations 
of this rite, see Section ioo]. 

Service for the Baptism of Infants. 

Dear Friends: In presenting your in- 
fant offspring to the Lord in Christian bap- 
tism, you do show the same religious care- 
fulness and parental solicitude that led the 
Virgin Mary to circumcise her Holy Child, 
and to present Him in the Temple. The 
impulse lies deep) in parents' hearts, beauti- 
ful in itself, and nurtured by our holy 
religion, to consecrate by some outward 
rite their children unto God. And Abra- 
ham, four hundred years before the giving 
of the Law, was commanded to apply the 
seal of His covenant with God to himself 
and to his male offspring. And perhaps 
nothing in the life of our Savior was more 
touchingly beantiful than His laying His 
hands on the heads of little children while 
He blessed them. And what words of His 



176 

are dearer to parents' hearts than these: 
" Suffer the little children, and forbid them 
not, to come unto me: for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." The parental feel- 
ings which respond so warmly to these 
words, have since Abraham's day found a 
fit expression in the sacrament either of 
blood or of water, in infant circumcision or 
in infant baptism. 

Prompted by these feelings, trusting in a 
risen Savior, believing that the promise 
made to Abraham is also made to you and 
your seed, you stand here in this presence to 
discharge a joyous but solemn duty. Glad 
that the Lord has blessed you, you now 
present the fruit of your union, and solemnly 
dedicate it unto God 

In doing so, you promise, in dependence 
upon the Divine grace, to train it up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord; to 
teach it the great Doctrines of our holy 
religion; to instruct it in all His precepts; 
and to use your best endeavor to bring it 
early in life into the saving knowledge of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Bear ever in mind, the obligations of this 
significant rite. During the long period of 



177 

childhood, God has laid upon you the duty 
of its moral and religious culture, which no 
one else can so well perform. Be faithful 
and patient, with all prayer and tenderness, 
assured that God 'will guide and reward 
you. So train your child by precept and 
example that when its soul like an opening 
bud shall reach out after light and life, it 
shall find them in Him who is the Light 
and the Life of the world. Then shall 
your dear little one, in the Lord's appointed 
time, go to be forever with Him who took 
little children in His arms, put His hands 
upon them, and blessed them. 

[Baptism, and closing Prayer], 

13 



INDEX. 



THE FIGURES REFER TO SECTIONS. 

Accept, same as adopt 154. 

Activity of Primitive Churches 135 

Modern Congregational Churches. . 136 

Adjournment, effect on councils 44 

Admission of Members 13, 116 

Form of 139-142 

Apostles had no successors 75 

Appeal, ♦Jo, from local church 32, 105 

Associations, Church 57-68 

Authority of 62 

Churches should join 2^ b 

Conditions of membership in. 23, 60, 64 

Doctrinal bases of 10 

How to form 167 

Justified in suspending or expelling 

members ...115 

Kinds of 58 

May join in calling councils 40, 50 

Membership in , 60, 67 

179 



180 

Associations, Ministerial delegates to, 

not members of 67 

Ministerial standing in 65 

Names of 59 

Nature of 57 

Not Presbyteries 64 

Object of 61 

Responsibility of 63 

Standing of churches in 65 

When may ordain 77, e 

Associations, Ministerial 69-72 

Continuance of 72 

Nature of 70 

Origin of 69 

Standing in 83 

Use of. i . . . . 71 

Authority, Associations have what 62 

Councils have what 54 

Ministers have none over churches. 73 
Ecclesiastical, where deposited .... 28 

Autonomy, Church 27, 34 

Baptism 100 

Mode of 100 

Service for Infant 168 

Baptists S3 

How differ from Congregationalists 129 
Number of note, 3 



181 

Baptised children, when may commune. . 9 

Basis, Doctrinal, of Union 10 

Bible, Standard of Congregationalists. . . 5 
Bishops, same as elders in New Testa- 
ment 31, 75 

Board, Church 99, c 

Bunsen, on Primitive Churches 34 

By-Laws of National Council 165 

Cambridge Platform, its theory of the min- 
istry 73 

Censures. .».. 112 

How to remove 112 

Certificate of church membership 118 

Challenge, no right of 50 

Church, A, what 18 

How formed 20-25 

Material of 20 

Membership in, a covenant 116 

Officers in 9 I "~99 

Standing of, in Association 65 

Worship of, controlled by itself 126 

Church, The Invisible 16 

How manifested 17 

Indivisible 35 

Theories of 14 

Church Board, what 99, c, 143 

Churches, Congregational 

Number of in world .note, 3 



182 

Churches, Legal relations ot 24 

Clerk of church 99, a 

Civil liberty, its relation to church polity 127 

Colman, on primitive churches 34 

Complaint, Form of 146 

Commission, The great 134 

Committees, Church 99, d 

Conferences, (see Associations) 59 

Confession in 

Confessions, General, of Faith 6 

Congregationalism, Constitutive princi- 
ple of 15, 26, 27 

Congregationalists 1-3, 127-133 

Meaning of name 1 

Number of 3 

Origin of 2 

Constitutive principle of Congregation- 
alism 15, 26, 27 

Proof of ... . 3° _ 34 

Constitution of National Council 164 

Coordinate Bodies 66 

Councils of churches 38-55 

Adjournment, how affects 44 

Dismissing, when needed, 45 

How called 40, 50 

Kinds 47 

Uni parte 48 



183 

Councils, Duo parte 49 

Mutual * 50 

Ex parte 51 

Membership in 41, 42 

Must be fairly chosen 52 

Objects 45 

National 162-166 

Procedure in 55, 151 

Quorum in. 44 

Result of 54 

Scope of 46 

Covenant, Church 21, d. 

Church membership, a 116 

Form of 142 

Credentials, Church 89 

Ministerial 89 

Contents of 90 

Creed, Church 7, 141 

Apostles' 141 

Delegates, chosen only from memberhip 60 
Ministerial, not members of Asso- 
ciations 67 

Reports of 56, 68 

Denominational differences: 

Fundamental 127 

Incidental 128—133 

Deposition from the ministry 84 



184 

Diaconate 94-98 

Deacons 94 

Deaconesses 95 

Duties of 96 

Election of 97 

Installation 98 

Dismissing Council, when needed 45 

Discipline, Church 103-125 

By jury ... «. . .108 

Law of 32, 104—106 

Offenses 103 

Private 105 

Public scandals 106 

Procedure in 107 

Discipline, Ministerial, by Associations. 87 

By Churches 113 

By Councils SS 

District Associations 58, a. 

Doctrine, Evangelical 12 

Importance of. 4 

Standard of 5 

Dropping members 117 

Duo parte councils 49 

Ecclesia, meaning of r 

Never used of a collection of churches, 1 7 

Ecclesiastical Authority, where deposited 28 

Society, not Scriotural • . . 29 



185 

Ecumenical Association 58, cL 

Elders, Plurality of in Primitive Churches 91 

Same as Bishops in N. T 31, 75 

Election of church officers 3r 

Deacons 3 1, 97 

Pastors 31, 34. 

Episcopacy, Constitutive principle of. . . 15 
Episcopalians, How differ from Congre- 

gationalists 132 

Equality in church representation im- 
portant 60 

Evidence, Rules of 109 

Excommunication .112 

Ex parte councils 51 

Their first duty 51 

Fellowship, Church 38, 57 

Conditions of 65 

How sought 23; 

Reciprocal 23, 64, 65, 85 

Form of Letters of Dismission 144 

Of Introduction 145 

General Management, Proof from 33 

Greek Church 133 

Hatch, on Primitive Churches 34 

Independence, Church 15, 26, 27, 64, 88- 

Of Primitive Churches conceded . . 34 

Proof of 30-34 



186 

Infant Baptism, Service for 168 

Installation . 78 

Decline of 91 

Irregularities, Force of no 

Jury trial in churches 108 

Lawyers in ecclesiastical trials 53 

Legal relations of churches 24 

Letters of Dismission 119 

Force of 123 

Form 144 

From churches 120 

To churches not receiving them. ... 121 
When cannot be issued. 122 

Letters Missive 39 

Forms of. ...... 147-150 

To discipline, a minister 150 

To dismiss a pastor 149 

To ordain a minister 148 

To organize a church 147 

To Recognize or install a pastor. . . 148 

Liberty in non-essentials n 

Destroyed by force 127 

Relation of Polity to 127 

Licentiates laymen 77 

When may administer Ordinances. 102 

Lord's Supper 101 

Relation of baptized children to . . . 9 



187 

Material of a church 20 

Membership, in Associations 60, 67 

Church, how guarded 9, 20 

In Councils 41, 42 

Weak Christians may obtain 13 

Methodist Episcopal Church 53, 131 

Milman, on Primitive Churches 34 

Ministerial Standing 80 

Held in Church Associations 85 

Never in councils. 84 

Not to be held in Ministerial Asso- 
ciations 83 

Transferred from local churches. 81, 82 

Ministers, Authority none 73 

Examination of 8, 79 

When pastors 76, 91 

Ministry, a function of the Church 73 

Doctrinal guards to 8 

Not a priesthood 74 

One order in 75 

Missionaries, First, sent out by a church . 134 

Missionary Societies 137 

Churches may control 134 

Mosheim, on Primitive Churches 34 

Mutual Councils. 50 

National Council 58, c, 163 

By-Laws of 165 



188 

National Council, Constitution of 164 

Doctrinal Bases of 10 

Rules of Order in 166 

Non-essentials, Liberty in 11 

Oath or affirmation to be used n<± 

Officers, Church: 

Deacons 94-98 

Other officers 99 

Pastors 9 I_ ~93 

Election of. 31 

Ordination, what, and by whom 77 

Organization of churches 20-25 

Papacy, Constitutive principle of 15 

Parties calling, not members of a council 42 

Protected in trials 115 

Pastorate. . . . 9 I ~93 

Theory of 73 

Pastors. 76, 91, 92 

Duties of 93 

Induction into office 92 

Installation 78 

Recognition 79 

Should be members of churches they 

serve 76 

Presbyterianism, Constitutive principle 

of 15 

Presbyterians, How differ from Congre- 

gationalists 53, 130 



189 

Presbytery in a church 91 

Proce'dure in church meetings 143 (6) 

In church trials 143 (17) 

In councils 151 

Quorum in councils 44 

Recognition, council of 79 

Reciprocal nature of fellowship 23, 64, 65, 85 
Religious corporations, law of, in States 24 

Reports of Delegates 56, 6& 

Representation, chosen from what 60 

Equality in, important 60 

Roman Catholics 15, 133 

Rules of Order in National Council .166 

Rules, Parliamentary 152— 161 

Bringing business before the body. 153 

Disposing of business 154 

Motions Amendable 155 

Incidental 159 

Privileged 160 

Requiring two-thirds vote 161 

Subsidiary 158 

Unamendable 156 

Undebatable 157 

Sacraments 1 00-101 

Administered by whom 102 

Seminaries, Theological 138 

Societies, National 137 



190 

Standing Rules for a church 143 

"Stated Supply " 92 

Sunday Subscriptions 124 

Superintendent of Sunday school 99 

Synods, National 162 

Theories of Church 14 

Constitutive principle of. ... , 15 

Diverge where 19 

Treasurer, Church 99, b 

Trials by jury 108 

Trustees, Board of 143, d 

Unifying principal 36 

Development of .- 37 

Unions, Congregational 59 

Uni parte councils 48 

Unity, Force cannot secure 127 

Veto, Pastors have no power of 28 y 93 

Vote, Only members can 76 

Voting members limited to adults 125 

Waddington, on Primitive Churches ... 34 
Weak believers admitted to membership 13 

Whately, on Primitive Churches 34 

Witnesses 113 

Protected 115 

Put under oath. 115 

Worship, Each church regulates its own 126 



?2-3) 



